hum 2461 humanities of latin america fall 2014

HUM 2461Humanities of Latin America

Fall 2014

Attendance Renassaince and “lo barroco” in

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. POP QUIZ

http://people.sfcollege.edu/ericka.ghersi/HUM2461.html

Sor juaninés de la cruz

Aztec Empire

Mesoamérica

México

http://people.sfcollege.edu/ericka.ghersi/HUM2461.html

A profusion of adornment in all the arts, and

A complicated façades, abundant foliage, plaster darts, crossings, coiling, scrolls, and conical shapes mixed with traditional shapes in sculpture and architecture.

lo barroco in mexico

characteristics of lo barroco in literature

Extreme decoration Subtle conceits (clever plays on

words): language is “slippery ground”

Maximum culture (knowledge, all the reading of humanities)

Pessimism Metaphor Stark opposites (light/dark) Veras and burlas

METAPHOR

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles" or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare).

Which is your?, get a piece of paper and write down a metaphor!

Veras & burlas

Veras&

burlas THE CREST

THE COPLA

Sor juana inés de la cruz(17th century)

Juana de Asbaje y Ramírez

Sor JuanaMéxico, nov. 12th,

1651-April 17th, 1695

Writer and poet.

1651 - 1695 / San Miguel Nepantla / Mexico

Two main contributions

1. Against the role of church. Expressed in prose, mainly.

2. Against patriarchal societies. Expressed in poetry.

Most important literary work

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was an exceptional XVII-century nun who set precedents for feminism long before the term or concept existed.

Her defense (letter) "Respuesta a Sor Filotea” (Reply to Sister Philothea) is a maverick work outlining the logical sense of women’s education more than 200 years before Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own.”

Most important literary work

IN POETRY:Her poetry, meanwhile, states in bold

language the potency of the feminine in both love and religion.

Poems such as “You Men” and “First Dream” pointed out how women were mistreated by men and society.

1) Against the role of church:“Respuesta a sor filotea”

It is an answer to the Bishop of Puebla (México), Fray Manuel

Fernández de Santa Cruz,defending herself.

What is “Respuesta a Sor Filotea”?


Sor Juana critiques a famous sermon given —40 years earlier—

by the eminent Portuguese Jesuit,Antonio de Vieira (Baroque

Brazil)

What is “Respuesta a Sor Filotea”?


Sor Juana writes —by Fray Manuel Fernández request—“Carta atenagérica”

Fray Manuel Fernández also includes a letter of his own titled “Missive Worthy

of Athena.” (1691) In the letter he is admonishing Sor Juana for her intellectualism under the

pen nameSor Philothea de la Cruz.

Fragments of“respuesta a sor filotea”

1. The publication of my work is a blessing which makes me feel unworthy.

2. I can’t thank you because I don’t know how, not because I’m ungrateful. I want to benefit more from your goodness; you can help to shape my intellect.

3. But your kindness does prompt me to answer, and I understand your warning to be against my secular writings. But how should I write of sacred things if I might misunderstand them? I don’t study to write or teach but to be less ignorant.

4. How much harm would be avoided in our country if older women were as learned as Laeta and knew how to teach in the way Saint Paul and my Father Saint Jerome direct!

5. Instead of which, if fathers wish to educate their daughters beyond what is customary, for want of trained older women and on account of the extreme negligence which has become women's sad lot, since well-educated older women are unavailable, they are obliged to bring in men teachers to give instruction…


6. As a result of this, many fathers prefer leaving their daughters in a barbaric, uncultivated state to exposing them to an evident danger such a familiarity with men breeds.


Some points

1. Laeta’s knowledge Be able to learn (women can have knowledge as Laeta).

2. Saint Paul and Father Saint Jerome be able to teach (women can teach women).

3. Uneducated women Ignorance is dangerous.

4. Women become an easy prey Opens discussion over rape.

Last lines of “respuesta…”

57.And if you say I shouldn’t write poetry because I am a woman, you are saying the evil is in my being a woman – because there is no evil in poetry. Besides, I’ve only written when begged to by others. Even the piece you respond to [the prose critique] was not written by my own volition and I did not intend someone like you to ever read it.

Last lines of “respuesta…”

57.It has been criticized, but I deem it better not to defend it, because the truth will speak for itself. Praise is more harmful than criticism, anyway, as it tempts one to pride.

58.I will ask your correction of any further writing I do.

59.I hope I have not been too familiar.60.I request God’s blessings on you.

Conclusions for “RESPUESTA…”

Sor Juana turned around the logic used by the Church to justify her oppression and subverted it into a magnificent defense for women's intellectual rights and education.


Though the letter’s tone is superficially humble, Sor Juana forcefully insists that women have a natural right to the mind. Her use of biblical evidence to support her call for strong, educated women is downright clever -- and has earned her recognition for her rhetorical skills.


“Respuesta a Sor Filotea” brought indignation from the Church and unwanted attention from the Inquisition.

To save herself, Sor Juana was forced to stop writing and to give up her books.

Characteristics of baroque

On her writing (?)On her life (?)

On her attitude (?)

2) Against patriarchal societies. through POETRY: “YOU men”

Hombres necios que acusáisa la mujer sin razón,sin ver que sois la ocasiónde lo mismo que culpáis:

si con ansia sin igualsolicitáis su desdén,¿por qué quereis que obren biensi las incitáis al mal?

Combatís su resistenciay luego, con gravedad,decís que fue liviandadlo que hizo la diligencia.

Silly, you men-so very adept

at wrongly faulting womankind,

not seeing you're alone to blame

for faults you plant in woman's mind.

After you've won by urgent plea

the right to tarnish her good name,

you still expect her to behave—

you, that coaxed her into shame.

You batter her resistance down

and then, all righteousness, proclaim

that feminine frivolity,not your persistence, is to

blame.

“YOU men”

Pues ¿para qué os espantáisde la culpa que tenéis?Queredlas cual las hacéiso hacedlas cual las buscáis.

Dejad de solicitar,y después, con más razón,acusaréis la aficiónde la que os fuere a rogar.

Bien con muchas armas fundoque lidia vuestra arrogancia,pues en promesa e instanciajuntáis diablo, carne y mundo.

So why are you men all so stunned

at the thought you're all guilty alike?

Either like them for what you've made them

or make of them what you can like.

If you'd give up pursuing them,

you'd discover, without a doubt,

you've a stronger case to make

against those who seek you out.

I well know what powerful arms

you wield in pressing for evil:your arrogance is allied

with the world, the flesh, and the devil!

Dream vision Emerged as a poetic genre in the Middle Ages. Kind of narrative. Narrator falls asleep and dreams the events of the

tale. The story is often a kind of allegory a tour of some

marvelous realm. Dante Alighieri The Divine Comedy (c. 1320) The dream vision was much favored by medieval

poets, most of them influenced by the 13th‐century Roman de la rose by the French poets Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung.

DREAM ALLEGORY

First Dream, 1692

Her most celebrated work.Silva (a poetic form combining verses of 7 and 11 syllables)Describes through the form of a dream the soul's rising toward

knowledge, employing extensively Sor Juana's knowledge of the sciences.

The poem is baroque style, yet seems to foreshadow the Enlightenment in its scientifically oriented worldview.

Interpretations of ”Primero sueño” are diverse. It has been variously described as metaphysical, as a defense of the private viewpoint, and as a work that in outlook foreshadows modern Mexican nihilism.

Regardless of interpretation, it is perhaps her most important piece, particularly because of her claim that it was the only work she composed on her own impulse rather than at the request of another.

Primero sueño

http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/poesia/primsuen.htm

http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/poesia/primsuen.htm

Spanish poets leading topics similar to hers: death

• Jorge Manrique (1440-1479)• “Coplas por la muerte de su padre”/

“Stanzas on his father’s death”

Recuerde el alma dormida, avive el seso y despierte contemplandocómo se pasa la vida, cómo se viene la muerte tan callando,cuán presto se va el placer, cómo, después de acordado, da dolor;cómo, a nuestro parecer, cualquiera tiempo pasado fue mejor.

• “Stanzas on his father’s death”

Let from its dream the soul awaken, And reason mark with open eyes The scene unfolding,— How lightly life away is taken, How cometh Death in stealthy guise,— At last beholding;

What swiftness hath the flight of pleasure That, once attained, seems nothing more Than respite cold; How fain is memory to measure Each latter day inferior To those of old.

Spanish poets leading topics similar to hers: death

• *Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561-1627)• “A un sueño”/”A dream”

El sueño (autor de representaciones),En su teatro, sobre el viento armado,Sombras suele vestir de bulto bello.

Síguele; mostrárate el rostro amado,Y engañarán un rato tus pasionesDos bienes, que serán dormir y vello.

Spanish poets leading topics similar to hers: dream

• “A un sueño”/”A dream”

The Dream (author of representations), In the theater, on the wind armed Shadows usually wear beautiful package.

Follow him; mostraráte the beloved face, And deceive a while your passions Two goods, you will sleep and hair.


• *Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-81)• “La vida es sueño” (Life is a Dream)

¿Qué es la vida? Un frenesí.¿Qué es la vida? Una ilusión,una sombra, una ficción,y el mayor bien es pequeño;que toda la vida es sueño,y los sueños, sueños son.


• “Life is a Dream”

What is life? A madness.What is life? An illusion,a shadow, a story.And the greatest good is little enough;for all life is a dream,and dreams themselves are only dreams.


What do you think el inca garcilaso and

sor juana have in common?

Illustrated foreigners.Belong to the Renaissance period, but live

under a ruled society (Spain in México).Educated writers.No position in the patriarchal world.

Pop quiz

1. What is “lo barroco” in México?2. Who is the maximum exponent in

literature?3. What does she represent?4. What did she write?5. Which work of hers caused her exile

in literature?

hum 2461 humanities of latin america fall 2014

Documents