Autobiographical Writing by Early Modern Hispanic Women by
Women's life writing in general has too often been ignored, dismissed, or relegated to a separate category in those few studies of the genre that include it. The present work addresses these issues and offers a countervailing argument that focuses on the contributions of women writers to the study of autobiography in Spanish during the early modern period. There are, indeed, examples of autobiographical writing by women in Spain and its New World empire, evident as early as the fourteenth-century Memorias penned by Doña Leonor López de Cordóba and continuing through the seventeenth-century Cartas of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. What sets these accounts apart, the author shows, are the variety of forms adopted by each woman to tell her life and the circumstances in which she adapts her narrative to satisfy the presence of male critics-whether ecclesiastic or political, actual or imagined-who would dismiss or even alter her life story. Analyzing how each of these women viewed her life and, conversely, how their contemporaries-both male and female-received and sometimes edited her account, Howe reveals the tension in the texts between telling a 'life' and telling a 'lie'.
The Spanish Pacific, 1521-1815 by
The Spanish Pacific designates the space Spain colonized or aspired to rule in Asia between 1521--with the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan--and 1815--the end of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade route. It encompasses what we identify today as the Philippines and the Marianas, but also China, Japan, and other parts of Asia that in the Spanish imagination were extensions of its Latin American colonies. This reader provides a selection of documents relevant to the encounters and entanglements that arose in the Spanish Pacific between European, Spanish Americans, and Asians while highlighting the role of natives, mestizos, and women. A-first-of-its-kind, each of the documents in this collection was selected, translated into English, and edited by a different scholar in the field of early modern Spanish Pacific studies, who also provided commentary and bibliography.
The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614 by
This collection of previously untranslated court documents, testimonials, and letters portrays the Spanish Inquisition in vivid detail, offering fresh perspectives on such topics as the Inquisition's persecution of Jews and Muslims, the role of women in Spanish religious culture, the Inquisition's construction and persecution of witchcraft, daily life inside an Inquisition prison, and the relationship between the Inquisition and the Spanish monarchy. Headnotes introduce the selections, and a general introduction provides historical, political, and legal context. A map and index are included.
Gendered Crime and Punishment: women and/in the Hispanic inquisitions by
In Gendered Crime and Punishment, Stacey Schlau examines the trial records of several women accused before the Hispanic Inquisitions, in order to shed light not only on their words and actions, but also on the ideological underpinnings and mechanisms of the societies in which they lived.
Sins Against Nature: sex and archives in colonial New Spain by
In Sins against Nature Zeb Tortorici explores the prosecution of sex acts in colonial New Spain (present-day Mexico, Guatemala, the US Southwest, and the Philippines) to examine the multiple ways bodies and desires come to be textually recorded and archived. Drawing on the records from over three hundred criminal and Inquisition cases between 1530 and 1821, Tortorici shows how the secular and ecclesiastical courts deployed the term contra natura--against nature--to try those accused of sodomy, bestiality, masturbation, erotic religious visions, priestly solicitation of sex during confession, and other forms of "unnatural" sex. Archival traces of the visceral reactions of witnesses, the accused, colonial authorities, notaries, translators, and others in these records demonstrate the primacy of affect and its importance to the Spanish documentation and regulation of these sins against nature. In foregrounding the logic that dictated which crimes were recorded and how they are mediated through the colonial archive, Tortorici recasts Iberian Atlantic history through the prism of the unnatural while showing how archives destabilize the bodies, desires, and social categories on which the history of sexuality is based.
Heretics or Daughters of Israel? : the crypto-Jewish women of Castile by
Between 1391 and the end of the 15th century, numerous Spanish Jews converted to Christianity, most of them under duress. Before and after 1492, when the Jews were officially expelled from Spain, a significant number of these conversos maintained clandestine ties to Judaism, despite their outward conformity to Catholicism. Through the lens of the Inquisition's own records, this groundbreaking study focuses on the crypto-Jewish women of Castile, demonstrating their central role in the perpetuation of crypto-Jewish society in the absence of traditional Jewish institutions led by men. Renee Levine Melammed shows how many "conversas" acted with great courage and commitment to perpetuate their religious heritage, seeing themselves as true daughters of Israel. Her fascinating book sheds new light on the roles of women in the transmission of Jewish traditions and cultures.
Reforma y disidencia religiosa : La recepción de las doctrinas reformadas en la península ibérica en el siglo xvi
En el siglo XVI, la Península Ibérica no quedó al margen del gran debate teológico que sacudía Europa. En España y Portugal se leían, comentaban y discutían los escritos de la Reforma. Su recepción no fue una mera aceptación pasiva de ideas extranjeras, sino el fruto de una interacción con planteamientos espirituales autóctonos que no puede ser reducida a la polarización entre católicos y protestantes. Las redes de creyentes evolucionaron al mismo tiempo que las doctrinas reformadas y que las estrategias de contención desarrolladas por los reyes y la Inquisición. Las contribuciones de este libro permiten un nuevo balance de la situación de la Reforma en el conjunto de la Península Ibérica, a la vez que ponen en relación a los círculos de exiliados con las comunidades del interior. Au xvie siècle, la péninsule Ibérique n'est pas restée à la marge du grand débat théologique qui secouait l’Europe. En Espagne et au Portugal, les écrits de la Réforme y furent aussi lus, commentés et discutés. Au-delà de la simple acceptation passive d’idées étrangères, leur réception se confronta aux approches spirituelles autochtones et ne saurait se réduire à la simple polarisation entre catholiques et protestants. Les réseaux de croyants évoluèrent en parallèle des doctrines réformées et des stratégies de contrôle mises en place par les rois et l’Inquisition. Les contributions de cet ouvrage permettent une nouvelle lecture de la situation de la Réforme dans l'ensemble de la péninsule Ibérique, tout en reliant les sphères exilées aux communautés de l’intérieur des deux pays.
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