LITR 4326 Early American Literature Research Posts 2016 (research post assignment) Research Post 1

Albert Salazar

Sor Juana, the Feminist Nun

          I was introduced to Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz with the poem we read in class, You Men. I was immediately curious about her because of her scathing criticism of men. The poem is made more impressive when you consider not only the time period she lived in, but also her position as a nun. There seemed to be a consensus that the poem was purely a feminist piece of literature because it appeared to decry the double standards between genders in the Spanish colony. Though I accept that to be true, I felt that we didn’t look at the poem through the lens of a Catholic nun. The answer I hoped to find in my research was whether or not Sor Juana intended to use her writing to speak for the oppressed women in society, or if she intended for her writings to express her views on faith and to help others become closer to God. I also wanted to know how she was able to gain universal appeal if most of her writings were religious in their origin.

          Admittedly, I was ashamed that I had never heard of Sor Juana before. I am a Mexican American whose parents immigrated to Texas before starting a family. Spanish was my first language, and growing up I felt more like a Mexican than an American since the culture that I grew up in was vastly different than that of other Americans. As a fan of history, I knew I had to find out who this woman was and why she is famous in Mexico for being a feminist icon.

          Not much is actually known about her life. What I found fascinating was that she learned to read and write at an early age; she was self-taught by reading books from her grandfather’s private library (Merrim xi). She was her own maestra, never being enrolled in formal education, and she preferred to learn about literature, science, mathematics, and philosophy. She was only ever taught by a reading teacher in her early life, a man named Martin Olivas, under whose tutelage she had taken twenty lessons in Latin (Royer, 15). Her Latin education enabled her to read ancient texts and her poems reflect what she learned about the Romans and Greeks. For instance, in You Men she references Thais (a courtesan of Alexander the Great) and Lucretia (a famous figure in Romantic history).

          Another famous writing of hers was La Respuesta. In La Respuesta she defends herself from criticism as well as explains why she writes. I especially enjoy the way she defends poetry as an art form by stating that much of scripture is verse, they sing in hymns, and that other church writings are also similar to poetry. In her argument, poetry can’t be bad because if it were, then that would mean church writings were too. She also says if the problem lies with her being a woman, “you are saying the evil is in my being a woman—because there is no evil in poetry.” And to further reinforce her argument, she claims that praise is more harmful than criticism “as it tempts one to pride” (Impson). She uses religion as a shield to protect her words since finding fault in her writing would mean finding fault in religious ideals as well, which is what I thought of when the class first read the poem, You Men.

          It is hard to say what she was most dedicated to, her faith or her passion for learning. On one hand, she was well versed in the church teachings to be able to go back and forth with other members of the clergy, and she must have been dedicated to her faith for her to willingly choose a life as a nun. But on the other hand, becoming a nun was her only way to continue her education, and if she was willing to go that far for her education, her use of religion to give power to her writing and allow it to be read by those outside of the church would make sense. It is difficult to grasp a complete understanding of this writer, but it does make her that much more interesting to learn about.

Works Cited

De La Cruz, Sor Juana. You Men

Merrim, Stephanie. Early Modern Women’s Writing and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Nashville. Vanderbilt University Press. 1999. Print.

Royer, Fanchon. The Tenth Muse Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Paterson, N.J: St. Anthony Guild Press, 1952

http://bethimpson.wordpress.com/courses/english-214/eng-214-sor-juana-summary/