During the years since his death, Federico García Lorca, Spain's best-known twentieth-century poet and playwright, has generally been considered a writer of tragedy. Three of his major plays are fatalistic stories of suffering and death, and his poetry is filled with dread. Yet most of Lorca's dramatic production consists of comedies and farces. Throughout his poetry and prose, as well as in his most somber plays, runs an undercurrent of humor—dark irony and satire—that is in no way contradictory to his tragic view of life. On the contrary, as Virginia Higginbotham demonstrates, through humor Lorca defines, intensifies, and tries to come to terms with what he sees as the essentially hopeless condition of humankind.

Although Lorca's comic moments and techniques have been discussed in isolated articles, the importance of humor has largely been ignored in the fundamental studies of his work. Higginbotham is concerned with Lorca's total output: lyric poetry, tragicomedies and farces, avant-garde prose and plays, puppet farces, and master plays. She describes Lorca's place in the mainstream of the Spanish theater and shows his relationship to some relevant non-Spanish dramatists. Furthermore, she discusses ways in which Lorca's work anticipates the modern theater of the absurd. The result is a comprehensive study of an important, but previously ignored, aspect of Lorca's work.

The Comic Spirit of Federico García Lorca includes a Lorca chronology and an extensive bibliography.

How does a totalitarian government influence the arts, and how do the arts respond? Spanish Film Under Franco raises these important questions, giving English speakers a starting point in their study of Spanish cinema.

After a brief overview of Spanish film before Franco, the author proceeds to a discussion of censorship as practiced by the Franco regime. The response of directors to censorship—the “franquista aesthetic,” or “aesthetic of repression,” with its highly metaphorical, oblique style—is explored in the works of Luis Buñuel, Carlos Saura, Juan Antonio Bardem, Luis García Berlanga, and other important directors.

Virginia Higginbotham combines historical perspective with detailed critical analysis and interpretation of many famous Franco-era films. She shows how directors managed to evade the censors and raise public awareness of issues relating to the Spanish Civil War and the repressions of the Franco regime.

Film has always performed an educational function in Spain, reaching masses of poor and uneducated citizens. And sometimes, as this study also reveals, Spanish film has been ignored when the questions it raised became too painful or demanding.

The author concludes with a look at post-Franco cinema and the directions it has taken. For anyone interested in modern Spanish film, this book will be essential reading.