Sor Juana Inés de la cruz

Before Feminism, Sor Juana.

Sor juana

1651 - 1695 / San Miguel Nepantla / Mexico

Most important literary work

• Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was an exceptional seventeenth-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.”

• Her poetry, meanwhile, states in bold language the potency of the feminine in both love and religion.

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

Respuesta a sor filotea

• It is an answer to Francisco Aguiar y Seijas, Archbishop of Mexico, defending herself.

• Gives a critique of Padre Antonio de Vieira’s famous sermon.

• Bishop of Puebla publishes it: Missive Worthy of Athena.

• Includes a letter of his own, admonishing Sor Juana for her “Intellectualism” under the pen name Sor Philothea de la Cruz.

Fragments of “respuesta…”

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.

Fragments of “respuesta…”

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

• Laeta’s knowledge Be able to learn.

• Saint Paul and Father Saint Jerome be able to teach.

• Uneducated women Ignorance/It’s dangerous.

• 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. 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…” 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 (?)

“Reply to Sister philothea” (Original, 1690)

HER 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 pleathe right to tarnish her good name,

you still expect her to behave—you, that coaxed her into shame.

   You batter her resistance downand then, all righteousness,

proclaimthat feminine frivolity,

not your persistence, is to blame.

HER POETRY: “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 armsyou wield in pressing for evil:

your arrogance is alliedwith the world, the flesh, and the

devil!