Romancero Gitano

Consider the depiction of women in Roamcero Gitano:
On the first glance, the women in Frederico García Lorca’s Romancero Gitano seem to be just that, gypsy women, however, when we look closer we see that not only are they a symbol of women supressed in a male dominated society, but also the imagery of the female part of the man’s subconscious. Spain during Lorca’s time was a male dominated society, where for the gypsy man, and the Spanish man it would have been uncommon to relate to their feminine side, and even if it they did accept it to themselves, it would have been very uncommon to reveal that they did. We would argue that Lorca as a gay creative artist, was very much in touch with his feminine subconscious. Furthermore that he also felt

‘Con la sombre en la cintura, ella sueña en su baranda verde carne, pelo verde, con ojos de fría plata.’ We would here argue that her longing for him, is a symbol of the female character representing the anima that have been hidden in the man’s subconscious, longing to be acknowledged, and also her being described as green, is a symbol of bitterness, a bitterness of being ignored. The gypsy man wants to trade his current way of life for another, ‘we move from the feminine to the masculine, from the slow evocations of green, night and dream to an urgent exchange between two men’. ‘Compadre, quiero cambiar, mi caballo por su casa, mi montura por su espejo, mi cuchillo por su manta.’ On the surface it is the smuggler lifestyle he wants to trade in order to achieve a more domestic life, but we would argue that this represents the male character wanting to accept his female subconscious. He is running from the Civil Guard, ‘Guardias civiles borrachos, en la puerta golpeaban’ who we would argue is representing society coming after him for wanting to accept his female subconscious and no longer accept the lifestyle that society wants him to live. When we read on we see that his loved one, is dead by the time she is found ‘Sobre el rostro del aljibe, Se mecía la gitana.’ The drowned girl, we would argue, is depicting the repressing of the feminine side of the subconscious, and her death is the

‘Ya la coge del cabello, ya la camisa le rasga.’ According to our theory we can interpret this in two ways. It can be seen as that he does not want to be separated from his feminine side, and the women portrayed as his sister, symbolises that she is a part of him that he needs to be with. ‘Amnón gime por la tela fresquísima de la cama. Yedra del escalofrío cubre su carne quemada.’ His longing for her is an image of the necessity of him accepting the female subconscious. The other interpretation, we would argue, suggest that him depriving her of her virginity represents the violation of his female subconscious by trying to be something that he from natures side is not because society asks it off him. ‘The many stylistic and thematic resonances from the romances fronterizos that echo troughout the Romancero gitano highlight a politics of cultural oppression toward the figure of the