Centenary Paper: Exclamations and their Marks in the Poetry of Federico García Lorca

In the poetry of Federico García Lorca, the use of exclamation marks and, consequently, of exclamations, is extensive. What is interesting is that the poet should have had recourse to punctuation so evocative of the speaking and feeling subject at a time when dehumanization was the governing principle in art. This paper explores the way in which Lorca handles exclamations and what it says about the extent to which he submitted to or resisted dehumanization in his work. It begins by quantifying Lorca’s use of exclamations before moving on to consider its evolution across his principal poetic collections.