Decorum and Love in the Spanish Enlightenment

Abstract

While José Cadalso identifies the feminization of Spanish society to express his disenchantment with the decline of Spain, and Amar y Borbón traces the role of the woman in educational endeavors to impart Enlightened optimism, their contemporaries José Mor de Fuentes and María Lorenza de los Ríos write about decorous and learned women who represent their authors’ disillusion with the ambiguous state of women in Enlightenment Spain. María Lorenza de los Ríos, otherwise known as the Marquesa de Fuerte-Híjar (Marquise of Fuerte-Híjar), participated actively in the Junta de Damas (Assembly of Women) of the Sociedad Ecónomica de Madrid (Economic Society of Madrid), becoming its president in 1817 and holding many tertulias (salons) at her home in Madrid. She spoke out particularly against women’s excessive attention to luxury and fashion and advocated education as a key means of Enlightenment reform (Theresa Ann Smith 154–55). José Mor de Fuentes was a journalist, poet, dramatist, and novelist who supported liberalism and published literary works about political events such as the French invasion of Spain in 1808 and the uprising of Riego in 1820. He published La Serafina in 1798, and it is considered one of the first examples of the contemporary Spanish novel.KeywordsEighteenth CenturyPublic RealmRomantic LoveEmphasis MineSpanish WomanThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.