Barbara Mujica

Teaching Literature: Canon, Controversy, and the Literary Antology

Anthologies have evolved from literary collections of the Middle Ages, reflecting changes in scholarship, attitudes, and pedagogical needs. Their use brings up questions of canon, content, pedagogical apparatus, types, and focus. Although postmodernist critics reject the notion of canonicity, anthologies continue to be popular teaching tools.

The Rapist and His Victim: Calderon's No hay cosa como callar

SEW WORKS in Western literature deal with the psychology of the rapist and the effect of rape on the victim as lucidly as Pedro Calder6n de la Barcas play No hay cosa.como callar, written during the winter of 1638-39. The antagonist of the play, Don Juan de Mendoza, continues the medieval Don Juan tradition, popularized in Spain with the publication of Tirso de Molinas play El burlador de Sevilla in 1630. Yet

Beyond image: The apophatic-kataphatic dialectic in Teresa de Avila

Catholicism distinguishes between two different approaches to spirituality. Apophatic, or negative spirituality stresses interiority, imageless-ness and wordlessness. Kataphatic, or positive spirituality is image-driven and uses analogies to speak of God. Teresa de Avila draws on both traditions. Inspired by Francisco de Osunas practice of recogimiento, Teresa describes the inward movement of the soul. The incoherent, impressionistic quality of her prose results from the amassment of disparate metaphors that ultimately transcend word and image, deconstructing all rational notions of God. However, her familiarity with Ignatiuss Ejercicios espirituales made her acutely aware of the effectiveness of image to spur spiritual experience, and she builds on images of Christ and the Virgin in order to overcome spiritual dryness and intensify prayer. The apophatic-kataphatic dialectic creates an exquisite tension in her work.

GOLDEN AGE / EARLY MODERN THEATER : COMEDIA STUDIES AT THE END OF THE CENTURY

During the first half of the century, comedia criticism was dominated by Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo, who was a product of realism and saw Golden Age drama as an authentic representation of society. Preferring the works of Lope, which he saw as more realistic, he condemned Calder6n for his hyperbole and for advocating wife-murder in his honor plays. The New Critics of mid-century subjected comedias to meticu- lous textual analysis and argued that Calder6n actually condemned the practices he depicted. During the same period, theater historians such as J. E. Varey began investigating Golden Age theaters from a social and eco- nomic perspective. During the last decades of the century, postmodernism, stressing the pluralistic and popu- lar aspects of culture, spurred critics to adopt the multidisciplinary approach of Early Modern Studies. This led to a broadening of the canon to include new authors, including women, and to an exploration of the perfor- mative aspects of the comedia.

Wisdom on Stage: The Evolution of Sabiduría in Calderón's autos sacramentales

The allegorical figure of Sabiduría, which appears in several of Calderóns autos sacramentales, evolves throughout the playwrights career. In his earlier plays Sabiduría appears as an elegantly attired dama who wears feathers or flowers, adornments that would have signalled her identity to audiences. This image of Sabiduría derives from a Sophianic tradition that depicts Wisdom as a female, the divine Sophia. However, in the second version of La vida es sueño (1673), which Calderón wrote at the end of his life, Sabiduría appears as a male, first as a galán and then as a pilgrim, without any of the customary accoutrements. The change in gender and costume is not gratuitous, but required by the doctrinal meaning of the auto, which reflects Calderóns mature understanding of the Trinity and his efforts to bring some of the complexities of Thomistic teachings on the subject to his audiences.

Women Writers of Early Modern Spain: Sophia's Daughters

This collection gathers together a wide variety of works by Spanish women writers of the Golden Age. In the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, the cloister was a refuge for women with intellectual aspirations. A few of these women produced biographies of founding sisters, histories of their orders and even poetry and theatre. Most of these writings were never published and only now, at the beginning of the 21st century, are researchers beginning to unearth and transcribe them. Barbara Mujica provides an ample introduction to the volume in English, placing early modern Spanish womens writing within the broader context of Europe of the time. The remaining text is in Spanish, and for each of the selections Mujica offers an introduction with biographical and critical information.

Escribir en dos idiomas

En este nuevo libro he puesto en prafctica lo que he predicado en estas paginas. Me he inspirado plenamente en la historia para luego reescribirla a mi gusto. Es un placer como hay pocos. Lo comparto, muy especialmente, con los j6venes escritores que andan en busca de un tema. Los exhorto a que conozcan el placer de meterse en la historia, de conocerla y de reescribirla... segfin la hayan fantaseado.