The Experience of Colour in the Theatre of Federico García Lorca

Abstract

Colour in the theatre of Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) is a powerful and equivocal force which is centred on his aesthetic concerns and on the audience experience. Lorca’s use of colour has long been a source of critical enquiry, yet the scholarly focus on traditional colour symbolism has largely occluded the material and affective nature of his colour-work. My aim in this thesis is to address that critical lacuna by demonstrating that Lorca’s colour practice is integral to his experiments with a ‘theatre of poetry’. This was his vision of a theatre which exposed the hidden suffering of his characters and sought to bring key themes and motifs from page to stage, creating an inclusive theatre of diverse influences which stimulated and challenged his audience. Within a framework of material, visual, literary, and cultural studies of colour, I analyse Lorca’s ten completed, full-length dramas, which were finished between 1920 and 1936. I demonstrate the importance of colour in our understanding of Lorca’s theatre of poetry and reveal how his colour practice and theatrical theory are interwoven throughout his theatre as a whole. I show how theories of affective and material colour offer a deeper understanding of Lorca’s colour practice; I provide a methodology for considering the work of other Spanish writers in ways which exceed traditional symbolic recuperations; and I open up the field through this interdisciplinary thesis which mutually benefits Modern Language Studies, Colour Studies, and Theatre Studies.

Date of Award	23 Jan 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Susan R Harrow (Supervisor) & Sally-Ann Kitts (Supervisor)