Sor Juana: La Comparacion Y la Hiperbole
2004; University of Pennsylvania Press; Volume: 72; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1553-0639
Autores Tópico(s)Latin American and Latino Studies
ResumoSor Juana: la comparacion y la hiperbole. By Margo Glantz. Mexico: CONACULTA, 2000. 255 pages.This book is a compilation of essays written by Margo Glantz, and is divided into three sections. The first part is a reconsideration of the biography of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, and it follows the project proposed by the French collection entitled Par soi meme, using literary texts as the foundation to revisit the main events of the Mexican nun's life. This is the strongest section of the book, and it includes three essays. The first essay explores how Sor Juana attained the knowledge and fame that made her such an important figure in New Spain. Glantz identifies an important subtext in Sor Juana's representation of her acquisition of knowledge: the control and discipline of the body. Sor Juana not only controlled what she ate, but she also cut her hair, and was willing to hide her body and her gender to pursue her epistemological concerns. The corporal dimension of knowledge is a central motif in the three essays of this section, entitled Saberes y placeres. The second essay revisits a well-known aspect of Sor Juana's life-her years in New Spain's viceroyal court-to trace the incorporation of this early phase of her life into her later writings on theology, religion, and secular topics. Courtly and sacred topics coexist and are translated into Sor juana's works; her conflictive relationship with her confessor, Antonio Nunez de Miranda, sometimes becomes a competition for visibility and fame within the viceroyal court. The last essay of this section focuses on Sor juana's double discourse that praises submission in courtly and religious settings, while she also celebrates rational knowledge as a worthy pursuit that dignifies human independence without infringing on the social and political boundaries surrounding appropriate behavior.The second part of the book studies Sor Juana's religious discourse in her villancicos. Glantz begins this section with an essay entitled ?Hay generos menores?, and she takes advantage of the double meaning of the word genero in Spanish (genre/gender) to question the function and existence of minor genres as well as a minority gender. This essay studies the villancicos written by Sor juana, and continues with the analysis of high and low symbols in these texts to praise the role of the Virgin Mary as a divine and human mediator. Glantz also addresses the popular nature of the villancicos as a pedagogical strategy linked to evangelization that was used by Sor Juana to give voice to racial and social minorities in New Spain in theological and epistemological debates. The next essay studies specifically the villancicos dedicated to San Bernardo's temple to identify some of the same topics already studied in Sor Juana's most popular texts. Glantz's main goal in this section of the book is to highlight the importance of Sor juana's villancicos by questioning the general tendency to study her religious and secular works separately.The last section of the book, entitled Enanos y gigantes, analyzes the final crisis of Sor Juana and tries to place in context her conflictive relationship with religious hierarchies and official institutions. …
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