The Politics and Poetics of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

George Antony Thomas

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138109070
• eBook ISBN: 9781317020615
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The Politics and Poetics of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz examines the role of occasional verse in the works of the celebrated colonial Mexican nun. The poems that Sor Juana wrote for special occasions (birthdays, funerals, religious feasts, coronations, and the like) have been considered inconsequential by literary historians; but from a socio-historical perspective, George Antony Thomas argues they hold a particular interest for scholars of colonial Latin American literature. For Thomas, these compositions establish a particular set of rhetorical strategies, which he labels the author's 'political aesthetics.' He demonstrates how this body of the famous nun's writings, previously overlooked by scholars, sheds new light on Sor Juana's interactions with individuals in colonial society and throughout the Spanish Empire.

Chapter 1 The Wedding Preacher: Celebrating the Brides of Christ

DOI: 10.4324/9781315554433-2

¡oh no permitáis Vos que, arrepentida,

los ojos vuelva más a lo que dejo!;

pues otro ya, Señor, femíneo sexo,

por volver a mirar, quedó sin vida.

Firme la vista, pues, los rayos siga

de vuestro claro Sol, si acaso puede,

águila vuelto amor, llegar a tanto.

Y cuando el alma el paso no prosiga,

decretad Vos, Señor, que al punto quede,

si no mudada en sal, desecha en llanto.

—Sor Violante do Céu

(Upon entering the Convent of the Rose)

In a quiet corner of the abandoned castle in Chapultepec Park hangs a celebrated portrait of New Spain's most distinguished poet: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Painted by the colonial Mexican artist Miguel de Cabrera, a curtain drawn to one side of the picture reveals the celebrated writer. Like an actress waiting on stage for the scene to begin, as if the religious woman's habit were merely a costume, Sor Juana sits quietly at a desk. Her dual and sometimes conflicting vocations of writer and nun are reflected in the objects she grasps: the delicate fingers of one hand cradle a rosary while the other turns the pages of a book. As in most paintings of the Tenth Muse, she is surrounded by her library and stares unabashedly at the viewer. Critics and admirers often comment on the power of these portraits, which appear in collections both in Spain and the Americas, as a testament to Sor Juana's fame and a public fascination with her that has endured for more than three centuries.

The depictions of Sor Juana as a learned woman contrast sharply with more traditional portraits of Hispanic nuns that emphasize either their religious devotion or their mystical experiences. In New World portraiture in particular, comparatively few Spanish American women were deemed important enough to be preserved for posterity within a portrait's frame. While the paintings of Sor Juana are often glossed with flattering summaries of her intellectual achievements, most nuns were praised for being faithful to their sacred vows. The image that best illustrates this obsession, and remedies the virtual invisibility of colonial Spanish American women in the historical record, is that of the “monja coronada” of New Spain. ¹ The “crowned nun” genre of paintings, which flourished in the eighteenth-century, was a variant of the wedding portrait that preserved for eternity the image of a nun during her profession ceremony or on her deathbed waiting for eternal union with her divine spouse. ² These depictions of Christ's brides frame the nun's dedication to convent life within the feminine ideal of virtuous wife/mother. In the profession ceremony portraits, in which the crowned nun proudly displays her wedding ring, she is often shown cradling a doll dressed as baby Jesus. If she is not depicted emulating the maternal virtue of the Virgin Mary, the nun usually wields some other symbolic manifestation of the absent groom_ a crucifix, a rosary, a lighted candle, or a portrait of Christ. The multitude of regalia depicted in these convent bridal portraits confirms the highly symbolic nature of the ceremony itself. The crown of flowers and bouquet of palm leaves represent the virginity, beauty, and youth of Christ's brides. Perhaps the most important symbol was the veil, the vestment most often associated with the religious vocation. In the profession ceremony novices usually traded their white veils for black ones since they had become widows. ³ As brides of Christ, they would have to wait for death to be reunited with their husbands.

1 Kirsten Hammer discusses this genre of painting in “Monjas Coronadas: The Crowned Nuns of Viceregal Mexico.” Most of the nuns in these portraits were from elite families. 2 Norma Montero Alarcón explains that, while the majority of these Crowned Nun portraits depict professions and funerals, nuns would also appear crowned when they assumed the position of abbess or in order to celebrate their 25th or 50th anniversary in the convent (81). 3 While most veils were black, the color of a nun's veil could vary according to the religious order (Hammer 90–91).

A woman's entrance into a convent and her final profession into a religious community were important events and a matter of great social consequence both for the nun's family and her religious order. Undoubtedly, for the woman herself, becoming a member of a religious order was one of the most critical decisions of her life. All convents in seventeenth-century New Spain observed the rule of enclosure, which meant that the nun would spend the remainder of her life within the cloister. ⁴ While the present chapter will focus on literary works that religious women wrote to celebrate another sister's profession, there are a few examples of poems in which a nun-writer contemplates her own decision to enter a convent. In contrast to the festive and sometimes comic songs written for the profession ceremonies of fellow nuns, these meditative poems are usually quite melancholy. Sor Violante do Céu's sonnet on her entrance into the Convent of the Rose, which appears as the epigraph to this chapter, includes the poet's vow to keep her eyes transfixed on God's light and not to look back to the world outside the convent's walls. Nevertheless, the difficulty of this life choice is communicated by her allusion to Lot's wife, who was transformed into a pillar of salt when she could not resist turning back to look at Sodom and Gomorrah. Sor Violante's sonnet concludes with questioning and self-doubt, as a similar punishment is solicited if the nun wavers in her faith: “Y cuando el alma el paso no prosiga, / decretad Vos, Señor, que al punto quede, / si no mudada en sal, desecha en llanto [And when the soul no longer continues on the path / Command, my Lord, that she shall immediately become / if not transformed into salt, dissolved by tears]” (Olivares and Boyce 309). While there is no explicit indication that a particular poem by Sor Juana was written for her entrance into monastic life, it is quite possible that she composed sonnet 149 for her own profession. This famous poem, which begins with the verses “Si los riesgos del mar considerara / nadie se embarcara … [If the risks of the sea were considered / nobody would embark …]” (1: 279), has usually been interpreted as an abstract philosophical meditation on the nature of bravery or heroism. However, Arenal and Powell's gendered reading highlights the conventual context of the poem's composition:

4 As Asunción Lavrin explains, perpetual enclosure for female religious became a universal rule for the Catholic Church after the Council of Trent (87).

Critics read the ambiguities of [sonnet 149] in different ways. In our reading, Sor Juana entwines and lauds irrevocable seclusion with intellectual fearlessness. Is the decision to take life-long vows an exemplary daring or a lamentable foolhardiness? Must reclusion be accompanied by active striving? Is the poet prophesying or defending her own arduous path? Some hear regret, others discern praise in the last lines. Sor Juana moves from images of seafaring, bullfighting, and horsemanship in the octet (feats associated with heroism and masculine physical prowess) to mythic risk-taking and poetic quest in the sestet. The conclusion sketches an attempt to challenge the gods … and associates it with choosing “a way of life that must endure till death”: suggesting the courage of a woman who takes monastic vows. (147–8)

The famous sonnet seems to suggest that the rash decision to enter into the unknown (which is associated with the explorer, the bullfighter, and the horseman) is just as heroic as the contemplative decision to knowingly embark on a lifelong spiritual and intellectual journey. ⁵

5 In comparing the two predominant “scripts” available to early modern women, marriage or the convent, Stephanie Merrim comments: “In literary convention, as in life, the most acceptable alternative to marriage for the seventeenth-century woman lay in the convent. Women writers effectively took possession of that alternative and utilized it as an umbrella that embraced and figured other ‘heroic’ options …” (Early 108).

Since the choice of a religious life was ultimately a life-long commitment, a nun's final vows would only take place after the trial period known as the novitiate. ⁶ The daily routine and rigor of religious life varied considerably among monastic orders and the transitional phase allowed the novice to familiarize herself with the rules and protocol of her convent. There was also a small ceremony for entering the novitiate. It usually took place in the convent church, a liminal space open to the public, before the nun entered the cloister. The novice arrived at the church dressed in sumptuous clothing and jewels. After the priest performed a sermon, conducted a brief series of questions to verify the novice's qualifications, and said prayers, the young woman would change behind a curtain and reappear kneeling before the congregation in a white veil and habit (Montero Alarcón 92–8). ⁷ If after completing the trial period she was approved by the members of the convent, the novice would then decide whether or not to proceed to the profession ceremony and take the sacred vows to become a bride of Christ.

6 The period of the novitiate usually lasted a year but was sometimes longer (Lavrin 71). 7 Montero Alarcón enumerates the list of qualifications for entrance, which usually specified that the woman be dedicated to a religious vocation, a legitimate child, between 15 and 17 years old, in good health, unmarried, unaffiliated with another convent, from a good family (not one of Jewish ancestry), and able to pay the required dowry (81).

The final profession ceremony was a cause for great celebration both within the convents and among the populations living outside them. The social importance of these festivities is indicated by their frequent appearance in colonial textual production. ⁸ For most female religious, the vows taken during the ceremony consisted of four major commitments: obedience, poverty, chastity, and enclosure. Obedience was generally understood as following the orders of superiors and the Rule of a particular religious order (Lavrin 86–7). It is more complicated to define the meaning of the vow of poverty, as adherence varied greatly among different convents. While it usually invoked restrictions on the types of property nuns could own and the exchange of money or gifts, in practice this vow was often not strictly enforced (Lavrin 82–3). The vow of chastity, which was universal in monastic orders, was intended to assure the perpetual virginity of the bride of Christ and her devotion to spiritual matters (Lavrin 84). Enclosure was also clearly defined as a vow, as it meant that the nun would live and be buried within the walls of the convent. Religious women were only allowed to leave the cloister in order to found another convent or to transfer to a new one (Lavrin 88). ⁹ While nuns could interact with people outside of their religious order through the grilles that formed a barrier between the convent and the secular world, some would find writing to be a more productive form of communicating with society extramuros.

8 For instance, in Antonio de Robles's Diario de sucesos notables, the entry dated August 10, 1695, reports: “… profesó en las Capuchinas doña Juana, la viuda del capitán Francisco Canales; dejó el mundo y 400.000 pesos para obras pías: hubo muchos fuegos a la noche y a la profesión … [Doña Juana, the widow of the captain Francisco Canales, professed in the Capuchin Convent; she left the outside world and 400,000 pesos for charity work: there were many fireworks at night and at the profession]” (3: 23). 9 Sarah Owens's Journey of Five Capuchin Nuns is a fascinating text that relates the adventures of a group of nuns that were granted permission to leave their convent in Spain in order to found a new convent in Peru.

Sor Juana herself attempted to become a member of two convents. She first entered the convent of the Discalced Carmelites, the order founded by Saint Theresa of Avila that was known for its strict rules, but left after three months. The more relaxed atmosphere of the Convent of Santa Paula of the Hieronymite Order proved to be a more suitable home. She professed there on the 24 of February, 1669, and signed a declaration of her vows that was kept in the convent's book of professions. A somewhat formulaic document, in it she promised that she would “vivir y morir todo el tiempo y espacio de mi vida en obediencia, pobreza, sin cosa propia, castidad y perpetua clausura [live and spend all the time and space of my life in ob...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Series
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Occasional Nun: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Early Modern Women’s Poetry, and the Occasional Mode
• 1 The Wedding Preacher: Celebrating the Brides of Christ
• 2 The Poet of Empire: Imperial Ceremony and Imitatio Horati
• 3 The Chronicler of Self: Flattery Will Get You Somewhere
• 4 The Court Advisor: Queenship and Kingship in Occasional Works
• Conclusion: The Political Aesthetics of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
• Appendix: Index of Occasional Verse
• Bibliography
• Index