Explore my ongoing book project, Anatomy of Transgression: Lorca and the Making of the Queer Body
Project Description
What can the godly thighs of Walt Whitman tell us about queer antisociality? What can the wounds of Saint Sebastian tell us about the diverging paths of surrealism? These are only a handful of the questions raised by Lorca’s depictions of the queer body. In Anatomy of Transgression, I argue that Spanish poet, playwright, and visual artist Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) challenges early 20th century conceptions of gender and sexuality through his depiction of queer bodies. While Lorca has been studied in gay contexts, queer readings of his work are lacking, as are studies of the body in his work. From neuron-like abstract forms to the mutilated bodies of saints, in connection with a global pantheon of artists including Salvador Dalí and Walt Whitman, these queer bodies transgress social norms and challenge preexisting ideas about sexuality and gender. I ask how Lorca uses these queer bodies to push beyond rigid binaries, contributing to both queer theory conversations and our own understandings of who we are as beings who live, die, and desire from within our physical forms. I also examine Lorca’s erasure from the queer canon: under Francoist censorship, where the name “Lorca” was akin to the love that dare not speak its name, to today’s exclusion of Lorca from queer studies. I contend that Lorca’s depictions of queer bodies, especially those of transgender and non-binary subjects, radically challenges the ideas of his times and shapes our understanding of queerness today.