ABSTRACT
There are few problems more central to the critical and creative reception of Federico Garcia Lorca's work than homosexuality. Lorca's lyric and dramatic discourse on sexuality is defined by its uncertain and unstable voicings. Since Lorca is the most canonical gay figure in Spanish literature, early interest in applying queer theory within this field might have taken him to be a paradigmatic case. Among scholars who attempt to reconcile Lorca's affirmation of homosexual sexual identity with the condemnation of the maricas, there is some consistency of approach. In addition to translating maricas with other, equally offensive words, interpreters also find themselves echoing ideologically problematic features of Lorca's discourse, especially the privileging of masculinity over femininity, nature over culture, and private expressions of sexuality over public group identity. Interpreters of the Ode are obliged to evaluate Lorca's interpretation of Walt Whitman and contrast it with the supposedly misguided admiration of the maricas.
