Juana De Research Articles

Transmisogyny in later (1588–1623) hagiography on Mother Juana de la Cruz (1481–1534)

AbstractIn this article, I contextualise and explain the restriction of what I term ‘trans potential’ in later hagiography on the Spanish visionary abbess Mother Juana de la Cruz (1481–1534). The first written work on Juana included a functionally transmasculine narrative (Juana passed briefly as a man) and a functionally transfeminine narrative (God miraculously feminised the previously male Juana prior to her birth, leaving her with an Adam's apple). In later works, the transmasculine narrative appears significantly modified, and the transfeminine narrative does not appear at all. These textual reformulations, I conclude, are most legible within the framework of transmisogyny.

Identity, Remembrance and the Question of Queer Becoming: Juana de la Cruz’s Sermon on the Legend of St Bartholomew

ABSTRACT The sermon that Juana de la Cruz (1481–1534) devoted to St Bartholomew offers an insight into her deep-seated and longstanding attachment to the saint as well as the transcendence of traditional boundaries and categories. Flaying, appraised as a metaphor capable of counterpointing the distinction between container and contained, destabilizes perceptions of identity, shedding light on both Juana’s androgyny and the complexity of the relationship between Christ and the Virgin. It thereby becomes possible to build on advances in queer theory, approaching the sermon in terms of the gender-fluid dynamism of pious identification.

Casa en que nunca he sido extraña: Las poetas hispanoamericanas: identidades, feminismos, poéticas (Siglos XIX-XXI)

Casa en que nunca he sido extraña: Las poetas hispanoamericanas: identidades, feminismos, poéticas (Siglos XIX-XXI)

Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography

Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography

Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography. Edited by Alicia Spencer-Hall and Blake Gutt

As the epilogue to this important new contribution to medieval studies rightly recognizes, the fantasy of an ethnically unified Europe, where men were men and women knew their place, is one that has frequently been bandied about by white supremacists eager to seek historical support for their Islamophobic or transphobic views. St Joan of Arc, scrubbed of queerness and essentialized as the Maid of Orléans, has been transformed into a left-wing working-class hero or a right-wing nationalist while Christ has been figured as the very archetype of masculinity, and thus a reiteration of the supposed primacy of Adam over Eve, and, by extension, of man over woman. The essays in this volume, which adopt a range of approaches to trans and genderqueer issues, reveal that nothing could be further from the truth. Medieval authors and artists, fascinated by questions of fluidity, repeatedly reveal how identified gender is not necessarily synonymous with the sex or the gender assigned at birth. The result is a fascinating and provocative insight into medieval production that raises clear implications for a range of broader interdisciplinary debates. The essays themselves, skewed heavily in favour of AFAB subjects (assigned female at birth), cover a range of topics. In addition to two treatments, by Vanessa Wright and Amy V. Ogden, of St Euphrosyne, who lived as a eunuch in a monastery, M. W. Bychowski offers a fascinating reappraisal of St Marinos/Marina, focusing on questions of exemplarity. The novelty of Bychowski’s approach lies in dismissing outdated terms such as ‘transvestism’, and instead focusing on the saint’s decision to self-identify as male. This raises implications not just for Margaret and Pelagia, to whom Marinos/Marina is etymologically and conceptually related, but for later texts such as Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda aurea, which performs a spectacular act of queer cleansing by reappraising the decision to don male attire as a mandate issued by the saint’s father, thus invalidating the display of agency and instead refocusing the narrative in part on notions of hegemonic masculinity. One slight criticism is that some essays are partially decontextualized. Caitlyn McLoughlin’s treatment of St Catherine of Alexandria, for instance, advances a number of informative observations but is weakened by the absence of references to previous critical studies of the saint or the broader theological or intellectual context of concepts such as her status as sponsa Christi [bride of Christ]. Conversely, a notable strength of the volume is Sophie Sexon’s treatment of Christ, who is approached from a non-binary perspective in which the wound in his side — appraised in conspicuously vulvic terms — is envisioned as the organ from which the Church was born. His depiction thereby succeeds in destabilizing the bounded categories of male and female. The volume is completed by essays on a range of other topics, including Kevin C. A. Elphick’s discussion of the much-neglected figure of Juana de la Cruz, as well as an extensive jargon-busting appendix which offers a number of invaluable pointers as to how language should be employed by those as yet unfamiliar with this fascinating emerging field.

The linguistic characterisation of Galdós’s characters in his last play, Santa Juana de Castilla

AbstractIn this work I propose to examine the linguistic characterisation of the characters in Galdós’s last play, Santa Juana de Castilla (Saint Joanna of Castile, 1918). The analysis will show that in addition to the use of archaic language, the purpose of which may be to evoke the era, the linguistic style of the play is characterised by the use of colloquial forms or those that replicate spontaneous oral conversation. The oral and the colloquial contribute to the modernity of the work and also seem to be a kind of implicit criticism of the melodramatic elements of the drama. The linguistic style seen in the work is coherent with its interpretation as a reflection on the history of Spain and its future, and as a final synthesis of Galdosian thought. The analysis also reveals that Galdós upheld his intention to revitalise literary language through the spoken word until the very end.

“Muses Beyond the Seas”: Spanish and Latin American Women Poets as Figures of the Transnational Avant-Garde (1920–1936)

The early twentieth century saw the emergence of an avant-garde culture, which marked a turning point in the literary history of Spain. Until recently, the dominant approach to Spanish avant-garde poetry has been a generational one. Critics have mainly focused on male poets identified with the Generation of 1927, which has been seen as a predominantly Spanish phenomenon. This study takes a different approach by questioning Spain’s exclusion from studies of the transnational avant-garde. By looking at literary circles and avant-garde magazines, this article provides an insight into the transnational exchanges between Spanish and Latin American women poets, who shared an aesthetic approach and engaged with avant-garde themes. It also examines the correspondence between Carmen Conde and Ernestina de Champourcín and highlights their connections to Alfonsina Storni, Gabriela Mistral, Juana de Ibarbourou, and Delmira Agustini. A study of the transatlantic connections among these women poets aims to offer a better understanding of the influences on their work, the impact they exerted beyond national borders, and the mediating role they played across cultural and geographical boundaries.

Accounting for Black Insurgencies in Los empeños de una casa by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Abstract: I examine the first performance of Los empeños de una casa in the context of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's experiences with finance and investment, arguing the centrality of the enslaved Juana de San José to her namesake's engagement with concepts of debt, worth, and price. I analyze these entanglements by considering economic historians' discussions of accounting's role in the formation of capitalism as a political economy. I then read the Sarao of Empeños as an accounting abstraction that includes Black voices of New Spain via Sor Juana's reckoning with marronage along silver routes; these were salient to the site of the first performance: the house of Fernando de Deza, the factor for the Spanish crown in New Spain. I thus explore the abstraction of Blackness in the Sarao , which, I contend, is like the fetishization and erasure performed by double-entry bookkeeping vis à vis commodities.

Radical Succession: Hagiography, Reform, and Franciscan Identity in the Convent of the Abbess Juana de la Cruz (1481–1534)

In this article, I study in depth the first vita of the Franciscan Tertiary abbess Juana de la Cruz (Vida y fin de la bienaventurada virgen sancta Juana de la Cruz, written c. 1534), examining it as a chronicle that narrativizes the origins and reform of a specific religious community in the Castile of the Catholic Monarchs. I argue that Vida y fin constitutes an account that was collectively written inside the walls of the enclosure that can help us understand themes, motifs, and symbolic Franciscan elements that were essential for the self-definition of its original textual community. I first discuss the narrative of the convent’s foundation and then examine the penitential identity of the community, highlighting the inspiration that Juana’s hagiography takes from the infancy of Caterina da Siena, as described in the Legenda maior by Raimondo da Capua, and analyzing to what extent the represented penitential practices related to the imitatio Christi reflect a Franciscan Tertiary identity in opposition to a Dominican one. Finally, I address the passages in which the hagiographer(s) discuss(es) the sense of belonging to the Franciscan order rather than the Dominicans, and the mystical figure of Francesco d’Assisi as a founder, guide, and exemplar.

Literary Patronage in Spain 1500–1560

Literary Patronage in Spain 1500–1560

Veiled Visions: Female Creativity, Persecution, and Oppression in Mar Gómez Glez’s Fuga Mundi

This study explores how Mar Gómez Glez’s play Fuga Mundi (2008) foregrounds gender issues and the oppression of women artists in order to further contemporary efforts aimed at rescuing history’s forgotten female figures. Focusing on Juana de la Vega, a protagonist largely inspired by the first female professional sculptor Luisa Roldán (1652-1706), the play is set within the historical context of the Morisco expulsion from Spain. Gómez Glez employs both an all-female cast and the conventions of the historical drama to shed light on how the ramifications of gender anxieties and the persecution of minority populations based on differential notions of race and religion permeated seventeenth-century Spanish society. By drawing on metatheater, intertextual references, and the interpolation of historical documents as framing devices that juxtapose with the action of the play, Gómez Glez stimulates a critical spectatorship geared toward establishing a dialogue between dramatic fiction and historical reality.

Monumentos y plagas biológicas. Una lectura del devenir colonial desde la investigación artística

Esta investigación pretende interpretar la impronta del antropoceno y sus consecuencias, a través de la observación de dos elementos simbólicamente coloniales y su desmonumentalización.El desplazamiento y sustitución de la estatua de Colón en Buenos Aires por el monumento de Juana de Azurduy, y el ataque de un insecto -el Picudo Rojo- sobre las palmeras de la franja norte peninsular, plantadas como símbolo de éxito colonial desde finales del s XIX. Ambos contextos -monumental y biológico son analizados desde la práctica artística como construcciones culturales, que retratan problemas ecológicos y político-sociales de memoria e identidad. This investigation tries to interpret the imprint of the anthropocene and its consequences, through the observation of two symbolically colonial elements and their decriminalization.The displacement and replacement of the statue of Columbus in Buenos Aires by the monument of Juana de Azurduy, and the attack of an insect - the Red Palm Weevil - on the palm trees of the northern peninsula, planted as a symbol of colonial success since the late s XIX. Both contexts -monumental and biologicalare analyzed from artistic practice as cultural constructions, which portray ecological and political-social problems of memory and identity.

Encargos artísticos de Juana Cortés (1538-1588), II duquesa de Alcalá

El artículo analiza un libro de finiquitos inédito que recoge los pagos realizados por Juana Cortés, II duquesa de Alcalá, en nombre de su madre Juana de Zúñiga (†1583). El documento atestigua su activa participación en el encargo de sendos monumentos funerarios para su madre y su hermana Catalina.

Immaculate Conceptions: The Power of the Religious Imagination in Early Modern Spain

Immaculate Conceptions: The Power of the Religious Imagination in Early Modern Spain

EL PROCESO LABORAL EN RETROSPECTIVA. COMENTARIO A LA SENTENCIA DE 1564 DE LA AUDIENCIA DE NUEVA GALICIA EN EL PLEITO ENTRE JUANA DE SALAS E INÉS DE PAZ.

espanolEn 1564, la mestiza Juana de Salas, menor de edad, denunciaba ante la Audiencia de Nueva Galicia a Ines de Paz, viuda del oidor Pedro de Morones, por el sueldo que le debia por su prestacion de servicios como criada. Este trabajo pretende analizar principios y procedimientos del actual proceso laboral que pueden observarse en dicho pleito, a pesar de la distancia temporal y de las diferencias de sus marcos juridicos. EnglishIn 1564, the half-breed Juana de Salas, a minor, denounced Ines de Paz, widow of the oidor Pedro de Morones, before the Audiencie of New Galicia, for the salary she owed him for her services as a servant. This work aims to analyse the principles and procedures of the current labour process that can be observed in this lawsuit, despite the temporal distance and the differences in its legal frameworks

Un episodio en la vida de la visionaria Juana de la Cruz: Sobre la autoridad espiritual femenina a comienzos del siglo XVI

Este artículo quiere dar a conocer un episodio que tuvo mucha importancia en la vida de la visionaria Juana de la Cruz, ya que aparece repetido en dos manuscritos: en su hagiografía y en el Libro de la casa de su comunidad. A partir de esta escena, donde Juana muestra su poder sobre la escultura de una Virgen al autorizarla como objeto de devoción, se abordarán las relaciones entre la mujer visionaria, su autorización espiritual, las imáge­nes, la doctrina de la Inmaculada y, finalmente, los grupos herejes. La primera versión del episodio es reproducida como apéndice del artículo.

En defensa de las “santas vivas” y la palabra pública de las mujeres: el Conorte de Juana de la Cruz y la genealogía femenina

El Conorte, compuesto en el primer tercio del siglo xvi por las franciscanas de Santa Maria de la Cruz de Cubas de la Sagra, defiende la predicacion carismatica de su abadesa y santa viva, Juana de la Cruz, frente a sus oponentes. Con este trabajo pretendo mostrar que estas autoras elaboraron ademas una teoria de autorizacion social de la palabra publica y el magisterio femeninos y defendieron a un colectivo: las visionarias profetisas y el modelo funcional en que se incardinaban como “santas vivas”. Construida sobre la genealogia femenina, muestra la conciencia sexuada, social y feminista de las autoras, y su afan de incidencia social.

Estrategias de enseñanza utilizadas en clases de evolución biológica

Las estrategias de enseñanza utilizadas por docentes en las clases de biología para que aprendan los estudiantes son diversas, desde las recomendadas para promover las habilidades cognitivas hasta aquellas que ayudan a comprender los fenómenos naturales. Para el desarrollo de este trabajo, se consideraron las estrategias de enseñanza propuestas por Díaz y Hernández (2002). La investigación tiene un alcance descriptivo. Además, el objetivo específico es identificar las estrategias utilizadas en las clases de evolución biológica por los docentes, ubicados en la ciudad de Maracaibo (Venezuela). Se utilizó el muestreo no probabilístico de tipo por conveniencia, constituida por un total de 24 docentes, que laboran en colegio de media general del sector privado ubicados en la parroquia de Juana de Ávila específicamente en la zona norte de Maracaibo, para los puntos: Avenida Fuerzas Armadas, Milagro norte y Urbanización la Trinidad, tomados en cuenta bajo los siguientes criterios: licenciatura de Educación Mención Biología, localizados en la ciudad de Maracaibo (Venezuela), activos en la labor pedagógica y con un mínimo de dos años de experiencia impartiendo clases de evolución biológica en la materia de Biología a nivel de media general. La técnica utilizada para la recolección de los datos fue una encuesta; empleando el instrumento con escala de estimación, con cuatro alternativas de respuestas. Las ilustraciones y las preguntan intercaladas, tuvieron el mayor porcentaje para la opción Siempre y las gráficas presentaron el mayor porcentaje para la opción Nunca y con una media aritmética más baja.

Poems by Delmira Agustini, Juana de Borrero, and Alfonsina Storni

Translated by G. J. RaczThis selection of poetry by women Modernista writers represents a group of authors often excluded when discussing Modernismo. Consequently, translation of works by women Modernistas is a rare occurrence. These three poems provide a rich and diverse perspective of the content and form of three essential women writers of the turn of the twentieth century: Delmira Agustini (Uruguay, 1886-1914), Juana de Borrero (Cuba, 1877–1896), and Alfonsina Storni (Argentina, 1892-1938).

Education, Identity and Women Religious, 1800-1950. Convents, classrooms and colleges by Deirdre Raftery , Ellizabeth M Smyth (review)

DR Brendan Byrne SJ teaches at the Jesuit Theological College, Jesuit College of Spirituality, Parkville, Melbourne, Australia. This is an adapted version of his words when launching Lost In Translation earlier this year. Education, Identity and Women Religious, 1800–1950. Convents, classrooms and colleges, Deirdre Raftery and Ellizabeth M Smyth (eds). (Routledge: Abingdon, 2016), 221 pages. This book is a collection of articles by a number of women writers. All of the contributors have a background in education and/or history and are involved in university teaching or have researched and published on specialist topics relevant to the varied work of religious women over the 150 years the study covers. In their introduction, the editors, Deirdre Raftery and Elizabeth M Smyth, point out that the significant work done by women religious all over the world has, until recently, been side-lined. There is a number of reasons for this but the editors stress that the influence of a hierarchical, male-dominated church has rendered these women voiceless for centuries. Many contributors enlarge on this in their articles. While the focus of the book is the work of religious in education, it covers a broad spectrum. The work of some religious at home in Ireland is addressed but many of the articles deal with missionary work in education overseas, including Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Phil Kilroy is a Research Associate in Trinity College, Dublin and a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart. Among other writings, she has published Protestant Dissent and Controversy in Ireland 1660–1714. In the article under review, ‘Coming to an edge in history: writing the history of women religious and the critique of feminism’, she points to the negative image of women in early Christianity, including their portrayel by the apostle Paul. She points, also, to the fact that the Virgin Mary was elevated to such an extent that she was removed from the human condition and placed in polarity with Mary Magdalen who, without any evidence, became ‘the clerical projection of women as evil, weak and sinful’. (9) The author takes us through the history of women religious in the early centuries of the church, through Celtic Christianity, Christianity in AngloStudies • volume 107 • number 426 244 Summer 2018: Book Reviews Saxon England and the history of women religious in medieval, late medieval and early modern communities. She writes of Mary Ward, who founded a radically new community, the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the seventeenth century. After its foundation, Mary Ward preached before the altar, gave her blessing and members of the community taught theology in their schools and did not observe cloister. The intrusions on clerical territory led to denial of papal approval for the community and Mary Ward was imprisoned in a Poor Clare convent. Phil Kilroy also writes of the Mexican scholar-nun Juana de la Cruz (late seventeenth century), who was renowned for her scholarship and learning and wrote theological treatises. She was examined and condemned by the Inquisition and continued to be relentlessly pursued. Eventually she broke under the pressure and disowned her own work and died a broken woman. Following the upheaval of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and Napoleon’s relationship with Rome), Pius IX convened the first Vatican Council in 1869. The Council set down measures to maintain discipline in the church, including turning its attention to works of education and nursing, i.e. to schools and hospitals, the work-places of women religious. This brought them further under clerical supervision and ‘the rules and regulations laid down became more stringent than ever before and in minute, invasive detail’. (21) This situation prevailed until Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council. Following the Second Vatican Council, the institutional church recognised the inherent challenge of feminism and demonised the word and its content and ‘most women religious agreed with this opinion’. (23) The author notes that, in time, many women religious became familiar with the insights of feminism and came in tune with the culture of their time, including its focus on issues such as justice, poverty, human rights, sex and gender. She concludes that religious women today...