1st Edition

The Routledge Research Companion to Early Modern Spanish Women Writers

Edited By Nieves Baranda, Anne J. Cruz Copyright 2018
    384 Pages
    by Routledge

    384 Pages
    by Routledge

    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.

    CONTENTS

    Acknowledgments

    Introduction, Nieves Baranda Leturio and Anne J. Cruz

    SECTION I: WOMEN’S WORLDS

    1. Aristocracy and the Urban Elite, Grace E. Coolidge
    2. Women’s Education in Early Modern Spain, Anne J. Cruz
    3. The Foundations of the Querella de las mujeres, Emily C. Francomano
    4. SECTION II: CONVENTUAL SPACES

    5. Autobiographies, Isabelle Poutrin
    6. Chronicles, Biographies, Hagiographies, Mercedes Marcos Sánchez
    7. Conventual Correspondence, María Leticia Sánchez Hernández and Nieves Baranda Leturio
    8. Convent Theater María Carmen Alarcón Román
    9. Body, Spirit, and Verse: Reading Early Modern Women’s Religious Poetry, Stacey L. Schlau
    10. SECTION III: SECULAR LITERATURE

    11. The Poetic Voice, María Dolores Martos Pérez
    12. Literary Academies and Poetic Tournaments, Inmaculada Osuna Rodríguez
    13. Novels and Narratives, Shifra Armon
    14. Women Playwrights, Amy R. Williamsen
    15. SECTION IV: WOMEN IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE

    16. Public Poetry, María Carmen Marín Pina
    17. Spain’s Women Humanists, Emilie L. Bergmann
    18. Women and Power, Nieves Romero-Díaz
    19. SECTION V: PRIVATE CIRCLES

    20. Didactic Treatises, Rosilie Hernández
    21. The Familial Lyric, Gwyn Fox
    22. Private Correspondence, Vanessa de Cruz Medina
    23. SECTION VI: WOMEN TRAVELERS

    24. Foundation Narratives, Darcy Donahue
    25. Transatlantic Religious, Sarah E. Owens
    26. Secular Women Writers in the New World (1543-1700), Rocío Quispe-Agnoli
    27. Transnational Exchanges, Nieves Baranda Leturio

    Index

    Biography

    Nieves Baranda is Professor of Spanish Literature at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain.



    Anne J. Cruz is Professor of Spanish and Cooper Fellow Emerita at the University of Miami, USA.

    "It is a valuable "state of the art" book on Spanish women’s cultural history that advances answers to questions raised by previous work in the field while also defining a model for productive collaboration in the academy across national borders. It mostly certainly merits publication."

    "This impressive and wide-ranging reference work will certainly be considered the go-to guide for students who require critical introductions to early modern Spanish women writers and for scholars seeking to build upon the avenues of research it announces."

    "In their Routledge Research Companion to Early Modern Spanish Women Writers, Nieves Baranda and Anne Cruz have compiled a critical resource that is not only an important compendium of the growing number of early modern Spanish women writers, but also a guide to the breadth and depth of feminist scholarship on those creative women."

    - Allyson M. Poska, Bulletin of the Comediantes

    "Each article concludes helpfully with suggestions of important work that is still needed and an ample bibliography that documents existing sources to help current and future scholars in carrying out that work [...] it should be included in every college and university library."

    - Margaret R. Greer, Duke University, Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal