Untold Sisters: Hispanic Nuns in Their Own Works / Edition 2

by Electa Arenal, Stacey Schlau, Amanda Powell

Overview

When it appeared in 1989, Untold Sisters was the first general introduction to Hispanic convent culture published in the United States. Since then, much has been learned about the links among women of differing cultures, orders, and convents, their networks and support systems, their conflicts and rivalries.

Most nun-authors lived in convents and were subject to multiple mechanisms of control. They found ways to negotiate, however, the repressive machinery of ecclesiastic and state institutions. Untold Sisters underscores how role models such at St. Teresa of Avila aided nun-authors in intertwining their personal beliefs with dogma, regardless of their social situations. At the same time that they wanted proximity to God, they sought to authorize speech, both oral and written.

Historical changes and geographical distance alter the meanings of written words. The language used by the nuns was common to the writers' regions, generations, and even their particular religious orders. Without this knowledge, it is easy to mistake words or modes of expression—quite common or particular in meaning to an entire community, city, or epoch—as unusual or original.

As in the first edition, the authors first study and then anthologize some representative nuns' writings, which are presented in modernized Spanish and English. Revealed here are the contradictions of female monastic life: repression and liberation, obedience and rebellion, conformity and individuality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826347381
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	07/16/2010
Edition description:	Revised edition
Pages:	478
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Electa Arenal is professor emerita, PhD Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages and Women's Studies Certificate Program, City University of New York. She is coeditor of The Answer/La Respuesta, a translator of poetry and prose, and a specialist on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.


Stacey Schlau is professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures, and the Women's Studies program, at West Chester University, Pennsylvania. She is the author of Spanish American Women's Use of the Word: Colonial through Contemporary Narratives.

Table of Contents

Illustrations vii

Preface to the Revised Edition ix

Preface to the First Edition xiii

A Note on the Translations xv

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction: Reclaiming the Mother Tongue: History and Spiritual Politics 1

Women in Christian Monasticism 2

The Hispanic Religious Context 6

Saint Teresa and the Visionary Model 8

Sexuality, Language, and Power 11

Nuns' Writing and Writing Nuns 13

1 More Than One Teresa: A Movement of Religious Women 19

Ana de San Bartolomé: The Making of a Carmelite Oral History-I 21

María de San José: Dialogue of a Carmelite-I 27

Ana de San Bartolomé: The Making of a Carmelite Oral History-II 30

María de San José: Dialogue of a Carmelite-II 36

Recreations/Re-Creation: Libro de recreaciones (1585) 37

"Carta de una pobre y presa descalza" (Letter from a poor, imprisoned Discalced nun) (1593) 42

"Instrucción de novicias" (Instruction of Novices) (1602) 44

Poetry 44

Texts and Translations 46

2 Two Sisters Among the Sisters: The Flowering of Intellectual Convent Culture 129

Maternal Models 135

Cecilia del Nacimiento, Poet 141

María de San Alberto, Poet 144

Theater in the Convent 146

Texts and Translations 150

3 The Poor Pray More: A Peasant Nun (Isabel de Jesús) 187

From Lowliest to Highest 187

Writing as Speaking, Speaking as Writing 190

Structure, Style, and Sources 191

The World Turned Inside Out: From Shepherdess to Mystic 195

Texts and Translations 203

4 Convent In/Verse: A Dramatist of Female Religious Life (Marcela de San Félix) 225

From Illegitimacy to Self-Legitimation 226

Sexual Politics and Humor: Censorship and Self-Censorship 232

The Aesthetic of Asceticism: Theater, Biography, Poetry 238

Texts and Translations 247

5 Spiritual Housekeepers of the Spanish Empire: The Apóstolas of Peru (Antonia Lucía del Espíritu Santo and Josefa de la Providencia) 291

Class, Race, and Sexual Politics 294

Imitatio 300

A Patchwork Text 306

The Use of the First Person 308

A Saint in the Making 310

Text and Translation 313

6 New Spain: Arche/Types, Archi/Texts 333

Mariana de la Encarnación (1571-1657) 339

Text and Translation 342

Venerable Madre María Magdalena Lorravaquio Muñoz (1576-1636) 352

Text and Translation 355

María de San José (1656-1719) 359

Texts and Translations 362

María Anna Agueda de San Ignacio (1695-1756) 370

Texts and Translations 372

Indian Princesses, Catholic Nuns 380

Texts and Translations 386

Madre María Marcela (?-?) 393

Texts and Translation 396

Notes 401

Bibliography 431

Index 447