National University Student Scholarship Conference, Poster Session, April 2010 Presented capstone summary to University Provost, Dean, and Department Head.

1. THE SPACE OF DUENDE
Understanding the Ar6stry and Psychology of the Crea6ve
Experience
Michael T. Maass, M.A.
Mentor: Dr. Janet Baker
M.A. English Program, Dept. of Arts and
Humani@es, College of LeCers and Sciences

2. ABSTRACT
This ar@cle asserts that an ar@st’s experience with the dark spirit of
crea@vity, the duende, can manifest itself in the form of a shared
aesthe@c experience with his audience. This claim is backed up
through a close reading of three of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poems, as
well as an explora@on of the psychology of the duende through the
applica@on of selected theories of psychoanalysis. The purpose of
this ar@cle is to demonstrate that, through the common space of a
shared aesthe@c experience, both the ar@st and the audience can
simultaneously experience the spirit of the duende. This ar@cle is
wriCen for a graduate‐level audience with knowledge of the works of
Federico Garcia Lorca, literary and poe@c analysis, art psychotherapy,
and Jungian psychoanalysis.

3. INTRODUCTION
In his 1933 lecture, before a crowd at the Sociedad Amigos del Arte in Buenos Aires,
Argen@na, Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca declared, ‘The magical virtue
of poetry lies in the fact that it is always empowered with duende, to bap@ze in dark water
all those who behold it, because with duende, loving and understanding are simpler, there is
always the certainty of being loved and being understood’ (Lorca 1933). Lorca’s declara@on
of the duende captured in language the dark spirit of crea@vity from which the ar@st’s work
springs. Edward Hirsch describes the darkness of the phenomenon when he says, ‘The
duende is savage and occult, it is ruthless in its alchemical pursuit of art. It is the secret
ingredient powering the development of lyric poetry’ (Hirsch 1999: 15). Lorca went on to
describe how the wriCen and performance arts of his na@ve Andalusia—poetry, dance,
music, and bullfigh@ng—could, through the duende, elicit profound aesthe@c experiences for
both the ar@st and his audience, ‘OZen the duende of the musician passes over into the
duende of the interpreter […] What happened, in effect, was that each in his own way found
something new, something never before encountered, which put lifeblood and art into
bodies void of expression’ (Lorca 1933). Here, Lorca implicates not only the ar@st, but also
the audience in the experience of the duende. Kris@ne Wilson touches on the dual nature of
this aesthe@c exchange when she says, ‘Duende func@ons both as a source of ar@s@c
inspira@on and as an effect of witnessing the work of art produced by such inspira@on. These
two func@ons operate con@ngently, and neither can be summoned at will’ (Wilson 2008: 76).
It is precisely at this intersec@on of the ar@st’s experience and the audience’s where this
analysis of the duende begins.

4. Soneto de Homenaje a Manuel de Falla Ofreciéndole
Unas Flores
Lira cordial de plata refulgente
de duro acento y nervio desatado,
voces y frondas de las España ardiente
con tus manos de amor has dibujado. (1‐4)
En nuestra propia sangre está la fuente
que tu razón y sueños ha brotado.
Algebra limpia de serena frente.
Disciplina y pasión de lo soñado. (5‐8)
Ocho provincias de la Andalucía,
olivo al aire y a la mar los remos,
cantan, Manuel de Falla, tu alegría.
Con el laurel y flores que ponemos,
amigos de tu casa, en este día,
pura amistad sencilla te ofrecemos. (9‐14)

5. Gacela VII: Del Recuerdo de Amor
No te lleves tu recuerdo.
Déjalo solo en mi pecho,
temblor de blanco cerezo
en el marRrio de enero.
Me separa de los muertos
un muro de malos sueños.
Doy pena de lirio fresco
para un corazón de yeso.
Toda la noche, en el huerto
mis ojos, como dos perros.
Toda la noche, comiendo
los membrillos de veneno.
Algunas veces el viento
es un tulipán de miedo;
es un tulipán enfermo,
la madrugada de invierno.
Un muro de malos sueños
me separa de los muertos.
La hierba cubre en silencio
el valle gris de tu cuerpo
Por el arco del encuentro
la cicuta está creciendo.
Pero deja tu recuerdo,
déjalo solo en mi pecho. (1‐24)

6. Café Cantante
Lámparas de cristal
y espejos verdes. (1‐2).
Sobre el tablado oscuro,
la Parrala sosRene
una conversación
con la muerte.
La llama,
no viene,
y la vuelve a llamar.
Las gentes
aspiran los sollozos.
Y en los espejos verdes,
largas colas de seda
se mueven. (3‐14)

7. METHODS
An analysis of three of Lorca’s poems, Café Cantante, Gacela VII: Del
Recuerdo de Amor, and Soneto de Homenaje a Manuel de Falla
Ofreciéndole Unas Flores, illuminates the unique nature of the
duende as it relates to the wriCen arts. A New Cri@cal approach to
these poems’ formal elements brings to light Lorca’s mastery of the
poe@c form, while an applica@on of selected theories of
psychoanalysis affords an explora@on of the profound emo@onal and
psychological affects his work is capable of impressing upon its
reader. In this way, this ar@cle examines the aesthe@cs of the ar@s@c
experience and provides a clear understanding of the ar@stry and
psychology of the duende.

8. Discussion
• According to Joy Schaverien, PhD, aesthe@c countertransference occurs when a work
embodying the ar@st’s energy and desire is witnessed and experienced by an observer, who, by
way of the exchange, experiences a countertransference of the ar@st’s energy in the common
space of a shared aesthe@c experience. In Café cantante, Lorca is witness to the dancer’s
hypno@c exchange and becomes enchanted by the same duendic spell as those around him.
That is, he is the subject of a countertransference of her duende through a shared aesthe@c
experience. Lorca’s par@cipa@on in the duende experience is twofold, as he has also recreated
the dance in the form of a darkly imaged and inspired fourteen‐line poem.
• Jung’s theories of ac@ve imagina@on & archetypal paCerns suggest that the ar@st is merely a
conduit for a flow of crea@ve ideas, and is essen@ally powerless in the transferent process
(Schaverien 2005). Similarly, Lorca points out the untamed, unpredictable nature of the duende,
‘With idea, with sound, or with gesture, the duende chooses the brim of the well for his open
struggle with the creator’ (Lorca 1933). Here we see that the duende, when considered within
the context of Jung’s ac@ve imagina@on, is not so much an ar@st’s exercise in self‐discovery, but
the act of the ar@st being discovered. Through the duende, the ar@st is discovered both by the
dark spirit of crea@vity and the art itself.
• H.G. Gadamer’s ideas on projec@ve iden@fica@on bridge the divide between ar@st and
audience. According to Gadamer, the iden@fica@on between the actor and the audience
enables the laCer to receive the focus of the play, effec@vely drawing the audience into the
ac@on to become part of the experience. Similarly, during the duende exchange, the duende of
the performer is transferred to the audience and thus reinvented.

9. CONCLUSION
While the performers and composers of his na@ve Andalusia beckoned
through their arts the shadowy presence of the duende, it was through his
own lyric poetry and wildly imagined verse that Lorca revealed the dark
spirit’s enchan@ng spell. In his 1933 lecture to the Sociedad Amigos del
Arte, Lorca bore witness to the enigma when he said, “But the duende ‐
where is the duende? Through the empty arch enters a mental air blowing
insistently over the heads of the dead, seeking new landscapes and
unfamiliar accents; an air bearing the odor of child's spiCle, crushed grass,
and the veil of Medusa announcing the unending bap@sm of all newly
created things” (Lorca 1933). In this analysis, a close reading of Lorca’s
work demonstrated his mastery of the poe@c form, while an applica@on of
selected theories of psychoanalysis offered a viable approach toward
understanding of the ar@stry and psychology of the duende at work in the
crea@ve process. While Lorca’s poetry demonstrates literature’s ability to
impress upon its reader emo@onally significant visceral experiences, it is
only within the common space of a shared aesthe@c experience that a
true understanding of the duende is possible.

10. REFERENCES
BenneC, Karen, 2002. ‘The “Duende” in England: Lorca's “Blood Wedding” in
Transla@on.’ Transla@on & Literature. 11.1: 24‐44.
Garcia Lorca, Federico, 1933. ‘The Duende: Theory and Diver@ssement.’ The Music and
Psyche Network.
Goudsmit, Arno Leo, 1998. ‘Towards a Nega@ve Understanding of Psychotherapy.’
University of Groningen: Disserta@ons of the Faculty of Behavioral and Social
Sciences: 194‐209.
Hirsch, Edward, 1998. ‘The Duende.’ American Poetry Review, 28.4: 13‐21.
Hobbs, Mary ECa, 2004. ‘An Inves@ga@on of the Tradi@onal Cante Jondo as the
Inspira@on for the Song Cycle Five Poems of Garcia Lorca by Elisenda Fabregas.’
Diss. University of North Texas: 5‐9.
Jalajel, David, 2007. ‘A Short History of the Ghazal.’ ghazalpage.net.
Laude, Patrick, 2005. Singing the Way: Insights in Poetry and Spiritual Transforma@on
(Bloomington: World Wisdom).
Maurer, Christopher, 2002, ed. Federico Garcia Lorca: Collected Poems (New York:
Farrar, Straus, Giroux). All poems are from this edi@on and are cited by verse number
in the text.

11. REFERENCES, cont.
Nommick, Yvan, n.d. ‘Chronology’ manueldefalla.com.
Pastor, Verbena, 2000. ‘The Dark Side of Crea@vity: The Func@on of Duende and God‐
BaCler in the wri@ngs of Garcia Lorca and Kazantzakis.’ Crea@vity, Spirituality, and
Transcendence: Paths to Integrity and Wisdom in the Mature Self. Eds. Melvin E.
Miller and Susanne R. Cook‐Greuter (Stamford, Conn: Ablex Publishing Corp.).
Schaverien, Joy, 1995. Desire and the Female Therapist: Engendered Gazes in
Psychotherapy and Art Therapy (Oxford: Routledge).
‐‐‐ 2005, ‘Art, dreams and ac@ve imagina@on: A post‐Jungian approach to transference of
the image.’ Journal of Analy@cal Psychology. 50: 127‐153.
Thackery, Susan, 1999. ‘Is There a Jungian Approach to Art?’ The San Francisco Jung
Ins@tute Library Journal. 17:4: 53‐79.
Wilson, Kris@ne A, 2008. ‘”Black Sounds”: Hemingway and Duende’. Hemingway
Review 27.2: 74‐95.

12. Federico Garcia
Lorca (leZ) was born
near Granada, Spain
in 1898.