![]() Though educated at a very young age when she followed her older sister to school, Sor Juana was mostly an autodidact. This lengthy epistle, dated March 1, 1691, written by the nun Sor Juana (Sister Joan), considered the greatest poet and most important writer of New Spain (colonial Mexico) as a defense against being told by her superior (a bishop) that she must not engage in secular intellectual exercises (he was ticked off that she disagreed with his favorite religious writer on a particular sermon), is itself an intellectual exercise. The emergence of Sor Juana De La Cruz in the late seventeenth century was a cultural miracle and her whole life was a constant effort of stubborn personal and intellectual improvement. She died of a cholera epidemic at the age of forty-three, while helping her sick companions. Shortly before her death, she was forced by her confessor to get rid of her library and her collection of musical and scientific instruments so as not to have problems with the Holy Inquisition, very active at that time. She had several drawbacks to her activity as a writer, a fact that was frowned upon at the time and that Juana Inés de la Cruz always defended, claiming the right of women to learn. Jerome, remaining there for the rest of her life and being visited by the most illustrious personalities of the time. Two years later she entered the Order of St. In 1667, Juana Inés de la Cruz entered a convent of the Discalced Carmelites of Mexico but soon had to leave due to health problems. Sponsored by the Marquises of Mancera, she shone in the viceregal court of New Spain for her erudition and versifying ability. In 1665, admired for her talent and precocity, she was lady-in-waiting to Leonor Carreto, wife of Viceroy Antonio Sebastián de Toledo. Thanks to her grandfather's lush library, Juana Inés de la Cruz read the Greek and Roman classics and the theology of the time, she learned Latin in a self-taught way. As a child, she learned Nahuatl (Uto-Aztec language spoken in Mexico and Central America) and read and write Spanish in the middle of three years. ![]() "With The Answer/La Respuesta, readers in English gain more than a new version: they gain far greater access to the wide range of information one needs to approach Sor Juana as a knowledgeable participant in the discussion her work invites.Juana Inés de la Cruz was born in a town in the Valley of Mexico to a Creole mother Isabel Ramírez and a Spanish military father, Pedro Manuel de Asbaje. "This is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand not only this remarkable woman, but also the whole world in which she forged her identity." -Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern ", which includes a biography, bibliography, and chronology, renders the work accessible and fascinating to modern readers." - Ms. magazine Recommended for informed readers." -Library Journal "Of the several editions available, this one alone focuses its analysis on the issues of gender. " is eloquent, sardonic, learned and, particularly in its autobiographical part, of great freshness." -The Times Literary Supplement ![]() It includes the fully annotated primary text, The Answer/La Respuesta (1691), which is Sor Juana's impassioned response to years of attempts by church officials to silence her, the letter that ultimately provoked the writing of The Answer, an expanded selection of poems an updated bibliography, and a new preface. ![]() This expanded, bilingual edition combines new research and perspectives on an inspired writer and thinker. While earlier translators have ignored Sor Juana's keen awareness of gender, this volume brings out her own emphasis and diction, and reveals the remarkable scholarship, subversiveness, and even humor she drew on in defense of her cause. Known as the first feminist of the Americas, the Mexican nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz enjoyed an international reputation as one of the great lyric poets and dramatists of her time. Edited and translated by Electa Arenal and Amanda Powell
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |