The Atavistic Vision of Andalusia in Lorca’s Romancero gitano: History and Context

Abstract

The vision of Andalusia found in Lorca’s Romancero gitano and the related ‘Conferencia-recital’ is best understood in the context of a long history of writings that present a variety of different perspectives: from the Romantic envisioning of Andalusia, the Generation of 1898’s exaltation of Castile, pre-modernista colorismo, the modernismo of Sánchez Rodríguez and Juan Ramón Jiménez, and andalucismo, through to several ‘theories of Andalusia’. Parallel to this run the main stages of research into cante jondo, a genre often held to express ‘alma andaluza’. Both traditions stress the many historical ‘layers’ of Andalusian civilization, leading to the notion of atavism.