Yerma - (Student Editions) by Federico Garcia Lorca (Paperback)

About the Book

"Lorca completed his great 'rural trilogy' - three separate plays deeply rooted in Spanish country life and tradition - shortly before he was murdered by Nationalist sympathisers in 1936. Yerma, the second, was premiered in 1934, to great acclaim, despite an attempt to disrupt the performance. 'A tragic poem', passionate and lyrical, it explores universal themes of fertility and infertility in an intense, stylised and innovative drama." "This edition contains parallel English and Spanish texts, in addition to the commentary and notes."--BOOK JACKET.

Book Synopsis

Yerma (meaning 'Barren') is one of three tragic plays about peasants and rural life that make up Lorca's 'rural trilogy'. It is possibly Lorca's harshest play following a woman's Herculean struggle against the curse of infertility. The woman's barrenness becomes a metaphor for her marriage in a traditional society that denies women sexual or social equality. Her desperate desire for a child drives her to commit a terrible crime at the end of the play.

About the Author

Federico García Lorca was born in 1898, in Andalusia, Spain. A poet and
dramatist, and also a gifted painter and pianist, his early popular
ballads earned him the title of 'poet of the gypsies'. In 1930 he
turned his attention to theatre, visiting remote villages and playing
classic and new works for peasant audiences. In 1936, shortly after the
outbreak of Civil War, he was murdered by Nationalist partisans. His
body was never found.