Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Nun Poet and Feminist Icon in the Time of the Spanish Inquisition
Sor Juana’s path from illegitimate prodigy to court favorite to nun to intellectual celebrity and finally to victim of an ideological and misogynistic Church has been the stuff of numerous studies. Hers was a life lived within the parameters of a society on the brink of the modern era but one which shuttered itself against the forces of the Enlightenment and tread lightly in the corridors of the Spanish Inquisition.
Seventeenth-Century New Spain
That Sor Juana, a woman and a nun, should have shone so brightly in the masculinized world of seventeenth-century New Spain is a reflection of her compelling vitality and intellectual capacities. This was a world fast on its trajectory from Spanish conquest to vice regency, and one which operated under a rigid patriarchal framework of court, Church and university.
The intellectual currents of this world had their roots in Platonic dualism, mythology, and Scholasticism. Its rituals were tied to the neo-medieval belief systems of the day, rife with allegory and metaphor. It was an era fascinated with the rich pageantry of court life and popular celebrations, one steeped in a Baroque sensibility, and one heir to erudite investigations into areas as diverse as Arabic erotica and seventeenth-century Egyptomania.
A Modern Sensibility Ahead of Her Time
All these influences are apparent in Sor Juana’s writings, which include amatory poems and allegorical plays in addition to the major works, First Dream and the Response, both a reflection on the solitary adventures of the mind that, in the opinion of Octavio Paz, presage a modern sensibility in literature. The latter work, an impassioned treatise on women’s education, also made Sor Juana a feminist icon for later generations.
Sor Juana’s life was one of difficult choices, often perplexing to modern readers. Why would a beautiful, sought-after favorite of the court abandon her position and enter a convent at the age of twenty? Why, when she had achieved fame and fortune, did she allow herself to be subjugated by the Church and turn to self mortification?
To answer these questions it is necessary to keep Sor Juana in her context and not impose anachronistic interpretations on her life and work. The Church offered her a life of relative independence. It was not uncommon for well-bred young women to choose the convent over marriage with its domestic demands and narrow scope, and for an educated woman it offered far greater resources for intellectual growth.
A Convent Become Intellectual Salon
Convent life provided Sor Juana with a cell that was hardly monastic. Here she amassed a library of several thousand books and added to her collection of musical and scientific instruments. Here she created an intellectual salon that attracted the literati and luminaries of Mexico City. Such was her brilliance that her fame spread across the Spanish-speaking world.
But the Church was also an institution that guarded its power and demanded complete obedience to its male hierarchy. Caught in a power struggle between her supporter, the Bishop of Pedula, and the Archbishop of Mexico, a letter in which she had criticized a Jesuit priest was published, provoking attacks from the Archbishop. The Response was her reply to these attacks.
Retribution was swift. The nun’s books, musical instruments and other possessions were confiscated and she withdrew into seclusion and penance until her death at forty-seven, five years later. But her work endures and the Response has ensured her legacy as a courageous voice for intellectual freedom and the rights of women. As Paz said of her, "few beings are as alive as she - after being buried for centuries."
References: Sor Juana Or, the Traps of Faith, by Octavio Paz. 538 pgs. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-674-82106-8. $19.95 paper
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
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Sor Juana in Her Library
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