Lorca and Salinas in New York: Mannequins and the modern language

Representations of mannequins and mannequin-like forms appear as occasional yet very vivid creations in key poetic works of Lorca and Salinas. These i mages, rooted in early Twentieth Century vanguard currents, add a powerful visual dimension to both authors' portraits of modernity anf the city, part icularly in the setting of New York. Mannequins impersonate the human figur e and at times bear a special resemblance to tress, also projected as human -like forms. Through these portrayals, as well as through other column-like constructions such as skyscrapers and statues, Lorca and Salinas offer for ceful expression of the deliverance they sought from the excesses, the cold ness, and the captivity of modern life, epitomized in the metropolitan sett ing. While Lorca expresses a bleaker and more sorrowful denunciation, Salin as appeals more optimistically ro the redemptive powers of love and underst anding.