Yerma (meaning 'Barren') is one of three tragic plays about peasants and rural life that make up Lorca's 'rural trilogy'. It is possibly Lorca's harshest play following a woman's Herculean struggle against the curse of infertility. The woman's barrenness becomes a metaphor for her marriage in a traditional society that denies women sexual or social equality. Her desperate desire for a child drives her to commit a terrible crime at the end of the play. This Student Edition comes complete with a full introduction; plot synopsis; commentary on characters, context and themes; bibliography; chronology, and questions for study.
Author Biography
Federico Garcia Lorca was born in 1898, in Andalusia, Spain. A poet anddramatist, and also a gifted painter and pianist, his early popularballads earned him the title of 'poet of the gypsies'. In 1930 heturned his attention to theatre, visiting remote villages and playingclassic and new works for peasant audiences. In 1936, shortly after theoutbreak of Civil War, he was murdered by Nationalist partisans. Hisbody was never found.
