The Privilege of the Dead: Images of Death in Lorca’s “Poet in New York”

Abstract

This paper presents a close analysis of the images in Federico Lorca’s poems entitled “Poet in New York” where he depicts two kinds of deaths that are opposite to each other in multiple aspects of meaning and significance. In so doing, the paper argues that the death depicted in such images as the drowned child signifies the loss of innocence, while the death of the city, depicted in the many cruel and bloody images in these poems, signifies a terrifying living death. The former is a concept that Lorca lamented and ritualized, a concept he allowed himself to be obsessed with. The latter is a concept he detested and condemned. The paper further shows that both concepts are reflections of his personal plights and tribulations in life and his own experiences in New York.

Keywords: Federico Lorca, Death, New York, the City, the Innocent