Conclusion

Summary

Cada minuto, cada persona, cada actitud puede

ser el germen de una obra dramática.

No quiero mundo ni sueño, voz divina,

quiero mi libertad, mi amor humano.

The final chapter of this study has attempted to move away from the (socio-)realist interpretations of La casa de Bernarda Alba, promoting instead the potential for more transgressive, experimental performance. But in the manner of doing so, I have been obliged to work within a very conventional opposition of gender values. Whether it is a reflection of the social reality of early twentieth-century Spain, or an expression of the poet's understanding of the tension between body and soul and the attendant crisis in gender identity that I suggest, La casa de Bernarda Alba presents an idealised picture of the freedoms of men and their masculine domain. I recall Martirio's portrait of masculinist power, when faced with the tale of the outrageous history of Adelaida's father, that orders the world in men's favour: ‘los hombres se tapan unos a otros las cosas de esta índole y nadie es capaz de delatar’ (OC IV: 328).

I have been concerned in this study with an exploration of gender and identity, as the primary site of the poet's preoccupations, precisely because of the curious and, at times, contradictory presentation of this theme in García Lorca's theatre works. I have been inspired to look at the gendered basis of identity not, I emphasise, because of the peculiar tendency in some readers to insert some kind of misogynistic bias into the works of a poet who knew same-sex desire. Hence I refute the interpretations of, for example, María Estela Harretche who sees El público as advocating the superiority of love between men over love between women and men. Similarly, I must denyJulio Huélamo Kosma's notion that the women of García Lorca's theatre elevate heterosexual love over same-sex desire and stand in opposition to love between men. Rather, I see such misunderstandings flowing from the poet's ambiguous exposition of gender in works such as La casa de Bernarda Alba and Yerma.