Women Texts And Authority In The Early Modern Spanish World

This is the first essay collection to examine the relation between text and gender in Spain from a broad geographical, social and cultural perspective covering more than 300 years. The contributors examine women and the construction of gender thematically, dealing with the areas of politics, law, religion, sexuality, literature and economics, and in a variety of social categories, from Christians and Moriscas, queens and merchants, peasants and visionaries, heretics and madwomen. The essays cover different regions in the Spanish monarchy, including Andalusia, Aragon, Castile, Catalonia, Valencia and Spanish America, from the fifteenth century through to the eighteenth century. Women, Texts and Authority in Early Modern Spain focuses on two central themes: gender relations in the shaping of family and community life, and women's authority in spheres of power. The representation of women in a variety of texts such as poetry, court cases, or even account books illustrate the multifaceted world in which women lived, constantly choosing and negotiating their identities. The appeal of this collection is not limited to scholars of Spanish history and literature; it is deliberately designed to address the issue of how gender relations were constructed in the formation of modern society, and therefore will be of interest to scholars of women's and gender history generally. Because of the emphasis on how this construction occurs in texts, the collection will also be attractive to scholars interested in literary studies and/or print culture.

This is the first essay collection to examine the relation between text and gender in Spain from a broad geographical, social and cultural perspective covering more than 300 years. The contributors examine women and the construction of gender thematically, dealing with the areas of politics, law, religion, sexuality, literature and economics, and in a variety of social categories, from Christians and Moriscas, queens and merchants, peasants and visionaries, heretics and madwomen. The essays cover different regions in the Spanish monarchy, including Andalusia, Aragon, Castile, Catalonia, Valencia and Spanish America, from the fifteenth century through to the eighteenth century. Women, Texts and Authority in Early Modern Spain focuses on two central themes: gender relations in the shaping of family and community life, and women's authority in spheres of power. The representation of women in a variety of texts such as poetry, court cases, or even account books illustrate the multifaceted world in which women lived, constantly choosing and negotiating their identities. The appeal of this collection is not limited to scholars of Spanish history and literature; it is deliberately designed to address the issue of how gender relations were constructed in the formation of modern society, and therefore will be of interest to scholars of women's and gender history generally. Because of the emphasis on how this construction occurs in texts, the collection will also be attractive to scholars interested in literary studies and/or print culture.

Containing essays from leading and recent scholars in Peninsular and colonial studies, this volume offers entirely new research on women's acquisition and practice of literacy, on conventual literacy, and on the cultural representations of women's literacy. Together the essays reveal the surprisingly broad range of pedagogical methods and learning experiences undergone by early modern women in Spain and the New World. Focusing on the pedagogical experiences in Spain, New Spain (present-day Mexico), and New Granada (Colombia) of such well-known writers as Saint Teresa of Ávila, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and María de Zayas, as well as of lesser-known noble women and writers, and of nuns in the Spanish peninsula and the New World, the essays contribute significantly to the study of gendered literacy by investigating the ways in which women”religious and secular, aristocratic and plebeian”became familiarized with the written word, not only by means of the education received but through visual art, drama, and literary culture. Contributors to this collection explore the abundant writings by early modern women to disclose the extent of their participation in the culture of Spain and the New World. They investigate how women”playwrights, poets, novelists, and nuns” applied their education both to promote literature and to challenge the male-dominated hierarchy of church and state. Moreover, they shed light on how women whose writings were not considered literary also took part in the gendering of Hispanic culture through letters and autobiographies, among other means, and on how that same culture depicted women's education in the visual arts and the literature of the period.

"The questions and approaches . . . really get my respect by the way they are argued. Some of these essays will spark controversy as to method; all of them will make changes in the way we teach the Spanish classics and in what classics we do teach."--Michael L. Perna, Hunter College "Covering various critical approaches to the study of feminine discourse, this collection helps the reader understand important issues in the field of women writers of Early Modern Spain and includes in one volume both the masculine and the feminine point of view of women writers and women characters in the Golden Age literature of Spain."--Maria Castro de Moux, U.S. Naval Academy Women in the Discourse of Early Modern Spain addresses the important methodological and conceptual issues surrounding the lives, works, and representations of women in the literature of Early Modern Spain. It offers a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of feminine identity and discourse both in the writings of both women and men. The essays move beyond the theme of women and literature in Early Modern Spain to reassess the economic, legal, political, and religious systems that articulate the parameters of women's access to power and self-determination in the past as well as in the present. Written by internationally known contributors, the discussions treat those writers of Early Modern Spain who have a broad appeal to today's readers and critics: the major authors of Spain's literary canon, as well as several authors who have recently inspired recognition and keen interest. Contents Introduction, by Joan F. Cammarata Part I. A Woman's Self-Fashioning: The Private Gendered Spaces of Feminine Authority 1. Authorizing the Wife/Mother in 16th-Century Advice Manuals, by Carolyn Nadeau 2. Identity, Illusion, and the Emergence of the Feminine Subject in La Lozana andaluza, by John C. Parrack 3. Skepticism and Mysticism in Early Modern Spain: The Combative Stance of Teresa de Avila, by Barbara Mujica Part II. Appropriation and Authenticity of Feminine Identity 4. The Price of Love: The Conflictive Economies of La gitanilla, by William H. Clamurro 5. The Problematics of Gender/Genre in Vida i sucesos de la monja alferez, by Rainer H. Goetz 6. Relaciones de fiestas: Ana Caro's Accounts of Public Spectacles, by Sharon D. Voros Part III. Cultural Constructs of the Feminine Psyche: Body, Mind, and Desire 7. Masquerade and the Comedia, by Anita K. Stoll 8. Dreams, Voices, Signatures: Deciphering Woman's Desires in Angela de Azevedo's Dicha y desdicha del juego, by Frederick A. de Armas 9. Galatea's Fall and the Inner Dynamics of G�ngora's Fabula de Polifemo y Galatea, by Joseph V. Ricapito Part IV. Power Stratagems of the Feminine Word: Constraints of Silence and Authority of Discourse 10. De voz extremada: Cervantes' Women Characters Speak for Themselves, by Sara A. Taddeo 11. Silence Is/As Golden . . . Age Device: Ana Caro's Eloquent Reticence in Valor, agravio y mujer, by Monica Leoni 12. Woman of the World and World of the Woman in the Narrative of Mariana de Caravajal, by Louis Imperiale Part V. Transforming Literary Conventions: Feminine Aesthetics and Gender Norms 13. A Cry in the Wilderness: Pastoral Female Discourse in Maria de Zayas, by Deborah Compte 14. Zayas's Ideal of the Masculine: Clothes Make the Man, by Susan Paun de Garc�a 15. Desire Unbound: Women's Theater of Spain's Golden Age, by Lisa Vollendorf Joan F. Cammarata is professor of Spanish at Manhattan College.

Contrary to early modern patriarchal assumptions, this study argues that rather trying to impose obedience or enclosure on women of their own rank and status, noblemen in early modern Spain depended on the active collaboration of noblewomen to maintain and expand their authority, wealth, and influence. While the image of virtuous, secluded, silent, and chaste women did bolster male authority in general and help to assure individual noblemen that their children were their own, the presence of active, vocal, and political women helped these same men move up the social ladder, guard their property and wealth, gain political influence, win legal battles, and protect their minor heirs. Drawing on a variety of documents-guardianships, wills, dowry and marriage contracts, lawsuits, genealogies, and a few letters-from the family archives of the nine noble families housed in the Osuna and Frías collections in Toledo, Guardianship, Gender and the Nobility in Early Modern Spain explores the lives and roles of female guardians. Grace Coolidge examines in detail the legal status of these women, their role within their families, and their responsibilities for the children and property in their care. To Spanish noblemen, Coolidge argues, the preservation of family, power, and lineage was more important than the prescriptive gender roles of their time, and faced with the emergency generated by the premature death of the male title holder, they consistently turned to the adult women in their families for help. Their need for support and for allies against their own mortality meant, in turn, that they expected and trained their female relatives to take an active part in the economic and political affairs of the family.

Gender and Exemplarity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain gathers a series of studies on the interplay between gender, sanctity and exemplarity in regard to literary production in the Iberian peninsula. The first section examines how women were con¬strued as saintly examples through narratives, mostly composed by male writers; the second focuses on the use made of exemplary life-accounts by women writers in order to fashion their own social identity and their role as authors. The volume includes studies on relevant models (Mary Magdalen, Virgin Mary, living saints), means of transmission, sponsorship and agency (reading circles, print, patronage), and female writers (Leonor López de Córdoba, Isabel de Villena, Teresa of Ávila) involved in creating textual exemplars for women. Contributors are: Pablo Acosta-García, Andrew M. Beresford, Jimena Gamba Corradine, Ryan D. Giles, María Morrás, Lesley K. Twomey, Roa Vidal Doval, and Christopher van Ginhoven Rey.

In Spain, the two hundred years that elapsed between the beginning of the early modern period and the final years of the Habsburg Empire saw a profusion of works written by women. Whether secular or religious, noble or middle class, early modern Spanish women actively composed creative works such as poetry, prose narratives, and plays. The Routledge Research Companion to Early Modern Spanish Women Writers covers the broad array of different kinds of writings – literary as well as extra-literary – that these women wrote, taking into consideration their subject positions and the cultural and historical contexts that influenced and were influenced by them. Beyond merely recognizing the individual women authors who had influence in literary, religious, and intellectual circles, this Research Companion investigates their participation in these circles through their writings, as well as the ways in which their texts informed Spain’s cultural production during the early modern period. In order to contextualize women’s writings across the historical and cultural spectrum of early modern Spain, the Research Companion is divided into six sections of general thematic interest: Women’s Worlds; Conventual Spaces; Secular Literature; Women in the Public Sphere; Private Circles; Women Travelers. Each section is subdivided into chapters that focus on specific issues or topics.

Unlike empresses in Germany and queens in England and France, the lives and political careers of most Iberian queens remain largely unknown to non-specialists. In this collection, Theresa Earenfight brings together new research on medieval and early modern Spanish queens that highlights the distinctive political culture that resulted in forms of queenship similar to, yet also substantially different from, that of northern Europe. The essays consider three aspects of queenship and politics: the institutional foundations and practice of politics, the politics of religion and religious devotion, and the literary and artistic representations of queenship and power. Late medieval queens, because they often occupied prominent and powerful offices such as the regency in Castile and Portugal and the Lieutenancy in the Crown of Aragon, exemplify a unique form of queenship that can best be described as a political partnership. Habsburg queens and empresses, often excluded from such official political roles, were less publicly visible but their power as partner to the king, although shrouded, remains potent. Their political careers were the result of two forces: first, military circumstances brought about by territorial expansion, conquest, and second, a political culture that did not explicitly prohibit queens from active participation in the governance of the realm. The essays in this collection-by both newer and well established scholars-demonstrate the range and depth of current research on Iberian queenship, and prompt a re-examination of long-held assumptions about women and the exercise of power in pre-modern Spain.