The Autos Sacramentales of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

The Autos Sacramentales of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Author: Alice Brooke
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2018
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0198816820

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1651-1695) was the most significant literary figure of the colonial period in Spanish America.The autos sacramentales, or Eucharistic plays are some of her least studied, and most perplexing works. While one of them, El divino Narciso, has received substantial scholarly attention, the other two, El cetro de Jose and El martir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo, have been critically neglected in Sor Juana studies. This study presents a full-length analysis of all three plays, along with their loas, or the introductory pieces alongside which they were intended to be performed. Furthermore, the study seeks to place these works in their philosophical and cultural context by exploring their engagement both with orthodox Catholic sacramental theology, and the emergence of empiricism and the New Philosophy across the Hispanic world. The three sections of this book each present significant new readings of the three plays. The study of El divino Narciso employs a previously little-known source to illuminate its Christological readings, as well as Sor Juana's engagement with notions of wit and conceptism. The analysis of El cetro de Jose explores her presentation of different approaches to perception to emphasise the importance of both the material and the transcendent to a holistic understanding of the Sacraments. The final section, on San Hermenegildo, explores the influence on the play of the Christianised Stoicism of Justus Lipsius, and demonstrates how Sor Juana used the work to attempt her most ambitious reconciliation of an empirical approach to natural philosophy and the material world with a Neostoic approach to Christian morality and orthodox Catholic sacramental theology.

Between Two Worlds: The autos sacramentales of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Between Two Worlds: The autos sacramentales of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Author: Amy Fuller
Publisher: MHRA
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2015-06-12
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1781881596

The seventeenth-century Mexican poet, playwright and nun, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, is best known for her secular works, most notably her damning indictment of male double standards, Hombres necios (Stupid Men). However, her autos sacramentales (allegorical one-act plays on the Eucharist) have received little attention, and have only been discussed individually and out of sequence. By examining them as a collection, in their original order, their meaning and importance are revealed.  The autos combine Christian and classical ‘pagan’ imagery from the ‘Old World’ with the conquest and conversion of the ‘New World’. As the plays progress, the mystery of Christ’s ‘greatest gift’ to mankind is deciphered and is mirrored in Spain’s gift of the True Faith to the indigenous Mexicans. Sor Juana’s own image is also situated within this baroque landscape: presented as a triumph of Spanish imperialism, an exotic muse between two worlds.

Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Author: Stephanie Merrim
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1999
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780814322161

Called the "Quintessence of the Baroque" and "Bridge to the Enlightenment," Mexican writer and nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz has also been celebrated as the "First Feminist of the New World." Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz fills a gap Called the "Quintessence of the Baroque" and "Bridge to the Enlightenment," Mexican writer and nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz has also been celebrated as the "First Feminist of the New World." Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz fills a gap in the scholarship on Sor Juana by exploring the implications of her feminist staus in literary and cultural terms. Editor Stephanie Merrim's introduction surveys key issues in Sor Juana criticism from a feminist literary perspective and suggests a blueprint for future studies. Essays by Dorothy Schons and Asunción Lavrin reconstitute essential dimensions or Sor Juana's world, addressing biographical questions about the norms and values of religious life. Moving from social norms to their verbal expression, Josefina Ludmer reads Sor Juana's Respuesta for its stratagems of resistance, and Stehanie Merrim uncovers in Sor Juana's theater the encoded drama of the conflicted creative woman.

The Divine Narcissus

The Divine Narcissus
Author: Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1998
Genre: Echo (Greek mythology)
ISBN:

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, known as "The Tenth Muse" of America, has been widely anthologized as a poet, intellectual, and defender of women's rights. Her calling as a nun, often overlooked, is clear in THE DIVINE NARCISSUS, an allegory ostensibly written to explain Christian concepts to the Aztecs whose plight under colonization it also dramatizes. This is the first English translation of this revealing work.

Reference Guide to World Literature

Reference Guide to World Literature
Author: Tom Pendergast
Publisher: Saint James Press
Total Pages: 1174
Release: 2003
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

Covers writers from the ancient Greeks to 20th-century authors. Includes biographical-bibliographical entries on nearly 500 writers and approximately 550 entries focusing on significant works of world literature. Each author entry provides a detailed overview of the writer's life and works. Work entries cover a particular piece of world literature in detail.