Ordenando paisajesun recorrido hermenéutico y traductológico por las Estaciones de Poeta en Nueva York (1940-2020)

Abstract

This doctoral thesis revolves around Poet in New York, a work written by Federico García Lorca as a result of his stay in this city between 1929-1930. This collection of poems is known by critics for its significant and many textual problems. This book suffered the direct consequences of the Spanish civil war and, as a result, it was published posthumously with the original copy being lost for many years. This work was actually published earlier in English than in Spanish. In 2013, the original manuscript was found. After a meticulous research on this book was carried out, what can be considered the definitive text in Spanish was published, putting an end, in some way, to many years of textual criticism. However, considered by many as one of the main literary works of the 20th-century in Spanish poetry, this collection of poems is also well known for its interpretative difficulty as it is the only work by Lorca in which there is no line-by-line study, nor an analysis that is not thematic or general in nature. Nevertheless, it has been translated on various occasions since 1940 to the present day, the last translation being from 2014. In this doctoral thesis, we aimed to get closer to the history behind the book, recognize its main features, the tradition it was born in and the objective and aesthetic challenges it poses. Also, we analyse the different translations of this collection of poems with the aim of knowing how the problem of the text, that has existed all these years, has been transferred into English as well as how this has affected the translations of the poems. Moreover, we wanted to find out how Poet in New York returns to this symbolic American city and to the country that it takes as a frame of reference, a place where we know Federico García Lorca left a strong mark. New York, the great metropolis, the symbolic city of our time and the place where dreams come true, but failures as well. If Lorca is considered the most universal Spanish poet, how has his literary work been read in English, one of the most widely spoken languages in the world? And, how has Poet in New York been read in English, a difficult work to be read even for a native Spanish speaker and that is considered, nevertheless, one of the best, if not the best, work of poetry written in Spanish of the 20th century? In this study we will carry out a complete and precise reading and interpretation of this collection of poems in Spanish, something that has never been done before, through a selection of five poems, each one representing five key moments in the entire New York set, according to professor and hispanist Ángel del Río. The contrastive study of the English translations of this book requires a detailed interpretation of Lorca's poems, of the suggested selection and of the rich poetic images they are composed of. Once this is covered, the translation of the poems will be examined. This research aims to carry out a semiotic and hermeneutical journey in which to rebuild the significant dynamics of each one of the selected poems. The goal is to provide an adequate interpretation of them to, ultimately, investigate their translations. In order to do this, all translations made to date have been first identified and carefully examined. Once the target texts are selected, we will identify the rhetorical figures found in each of the images, where several can be operating at once. Our in depth analysis of these texts leads us to think how, on one hand, translations can vary according to the interpretation translators may have of the original text and, at the same time, how translations can be a valuable analytical tool to give us some clues about a text in its original language, as it is the case of the one here under consideration. Therefore, here the translation is not only a one-way journey, but also a round trip. Thus, this study, which stands out for its interdisciplinary nature, brings together the contrastive analysis of the translations of the poems to a higher framework: that of the reception and the dialogue that takes place from the translation itself between two cultural traditions, the North American and the Spanish. Reception and dialogue that are both part of the tasks and responsibilities literary criticism and interpretation entail. Therefore, this study provides an in-depth analysis in areas of strategic interest for the development of humanities, due to the research and investigation it requires, by linking the field studies of Philology (textual and literary criticism), Translation and Hermeneutics. Field studies that, in their own nature, are also essential instruments of cultural mediation in the important design of our global world.