Harmonious dissonance : Jazz-Age U.S.A. and avant-gardism in the poetry of Luis Cernuda, Federico Garcia Lorca and Rafael Alberti

The era of the Roaring Twenties saw the culmination of early twentieth century development of the U.S.A., in which American society came to embrace and epitomise modernity and establish its cultural dominance throughout the western world. Thus, it is unsurprising that features that define 1920s U.S.A., such as jazz and the speakeasies of the Prohibition; flappers and greater sexual freedom; the emerging celebrity culture brought about by Hollywood silent film stars; and the rise of mass consumer culture, held international reach and fascination. This thesis examines the manner in which three of the most renowned poets of Spain: Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti and Luis Cernuda, each engaged with the modern popular culture of Jazz-Age U.S.A. in the poetry they composed towards the end of the 1920s, arguing that this engagement with the U.S.A. was fundamental in the avant-garde nature of their work of the time and thus central to the development the avant-gardism of these poets. Most importantly, the discussion posits that it is an articulation of aurality, a term used to encapsulate the broad study of elements relating to sound, which stands at the heart of the paradoxical juxtaposition of American popular culture and the European avant-garde that occurs in this poetry. Thus, this thesis demonstrates that Cernuda, Lorca and Alberti desired to not only represent, but evoke sound in their poetry. Through close textual analysis and using the framework of musico-literary studies and soundscape studies, it examines the diverging methods by which they achieved this goal. Furthermore, and very significantly, the examination of poetry herein establishes that it is an expression of emotionality that distinguishes the avant-garde nature of the poetry studied. The crux of this research shows that the work of Cernuda, Lorca and Alberti evidences both intellectualism and emotionality. Ultimately, the U.S.A. provided the means to marry emotional inspiration and expression with the European avant-garde intellectual imagination.