To celebrate International Book Day, the Instituto Cervantes Londres is organizing the lecture Between Worlds and Verses: Lorca and Machado. The Spanish Economic Context through Poetry, delivered by researcher and founder of the Art Faber collective, Jordi Gómez Villena.
The early twentieth century is one of the most fruitful periods in Spanish literature. This era, marked by continuous sociopolitical and economic changes, produced multiple artistic expressions that serve as testimonies of their time. Some of the most significant examples come from poetry, particularly from Federico García Lorca and Antonio Machado, two of the most renowned voices in Spain’s literary heritage.
This presentation focuses on the works Campos de Castilla and Poeta en Nueva York as examples to explore both Spanish art faber poetry and the context in which these works were developed.
To achieve this goal, the lecture is structured around three main points:
Introduction to Art Faber
Historical context of the works
A comparative reading of both works through the faberian lens
The work of these two poets allows us to see the contrasts between the agricultural sector—Spain’s main economic base until the true industrial development of the 1950s—and the urban world of New York, a universe diametrically opposed to national conservatism. Nevertheless, the whirlwind of the metropolis does not necessarily present the happiness of a new world. This lecture reveals the balance and tensions within a country that, far from being the economic power it once was, struggles between an obsolete identity and a world that is leaving it behind.
