Poems, Protest, and a Dream: Selected Writings

An excellent selection of texts--from the "Response" to the long poem "First I Dream" to some wonderful short poems and the "loa" or dramatic prologue to the drama "The Divine Narcissus." Margaret Peden's translations are fluent and readable, and the Spanish is on facing pages so you see the original easily. Ilan Stavans' introduction is very helpful, giving the facts of Sor Juana's life (insofar as known), the complexities of the situation that the "Response" addresses, and some help with the context and conventions of her poetry. Sor Juana is an astounding writer--her subtlety and complexities unfold more and more as you read and reflect on her writings. The "Response" is a rhetorical complex defense of her position as a "learned" woman, gathering the rhetorical authority to defend herself out of the very sources (the Bible, church teachings) that were used to attack her and turning the persona under which her Bishop attacked her (a letter pretending to be by a fellow nun) into a deft weapon against him. She articulates a tradition of women's learning and turns a seemingly self-effacing self-limitation to the "philosophy of the kitchen" into a far-reaching claim to a unique female source of knowledge. The "loa" presents dramatically the complex interaction between a colonizing and colonized culture, native language and a Spanish that is becoming at home in the New World, and a native religion which is not simply abandoned for Catholicism but already contains truths which Catholicism confirms and validates even in the process of converting it. She is one of the great writers of the Seventeenth Century and especially interesting in relation to contemporary multicultural identities and cultural interactions.

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz is one of those remarkable literary figures whose extraordinary body of work forces one to either reevaluate or refine one's ideas about the complex interrelationships between religion, gender, national identity, and ethnicity. A nun who lived in seventeenth century Mexico, she distinguished herself as a poet, playwright, and prose writer."Poems, Protest, and a Dream" is an excellent introduction to the life and work of this fascinating woman. This selection of her works includes her famous prose piece addressed to "Sor Filotea de la Cruz," a hearty helping of her poetry, and two selections from her dramatic corpus. The bilingual format of the text, with Sor Juana's Spanish original on each even-numbered page and Margaret Sayers Peden's elegant English translation on each odd-numbered page, allows one to easily compare the two versions.The distinguished scholar Ilan Stavans has written an extensive 32 page introduction. Stavans describes in detail the historical and cultural context from which Sor Juana wrote; his sensitive and intelligent portrait of the woman and her age made me appreciate and enjoy her writings even more.Sor Juana takes on themes that are still relevant (and often hotly debated) more than three centuries after she wrote these works. The response to Sor Filotea is a defense of female intellectual aspiration in a male-dominated culture; in the defense Sor Juana critically responds to those who use the Judeo-Christian Bible as a tool for intimidating and marginalizing women. With certain factions of the "religious right" still using the Bible as a weapon for demonizing certain individuals and social agendas, Sor Juana's words continue to ring fresh and clear.Equally extraordinary is Sor Juana's loa (a dramatic scene which prefaces a longer play) to "The Divine Narcissus." The loa is an allegory depicting the early contact between Christianity and the religion of the Aztecs; in this piece I detect a subtle satirical thrust which adds to the complexity of Sor Juana's vision. Sor Juana was a masterful stylist in multiple literary genres, and her depth of psychological and moral insight adds to her stature as a literary giant. Nobody should consider herself or himself literate in the fields of women's studies or Latin American studies without having read the works of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. "Poems, Protest, and a Dream" is an excellent resource for both independent reading and classroom use. Enjoy Sor Juana's artistry, and reflect on her ideas.

A great intellectual is not commonly thought of to be a woman, especially in 17th century New Spain. In the midst of the highly structured Baroque literary period, an illegitimate child was baptized as Juana Ramírez de Asbaje, spent her adolescence at court, and left to become a nun where she could continue her studies in peace, rather than marrying. Although she was almost entirely self-educated, the word quickly spread of her intelligence. This caused envy and animosity towards her that she tried to avoid her entire adult life. Four years before she died, the church forced her to give up her writings and worldly studies. In her letter of response to this request, (included in the book) she became the first woman in Latin America to defend her gender's right to study and write as men could. Much of her work was commissioned, but more is being discovered of her autobiographical writings. This book includes one of the few known poems (Primero Sueño) that was not commissioned. The book is in Spanish and English on opposing pages. This is very advantageous if you are bilingual, and even if you aren't, I can't say enough about Margaret Sayers Peden's translations. Not only does she give you as close to word for word; she also preserves the original structure, themes, and rhyme schemes that are so essential in Baroque literature. Even if you go no further than this book, you will not be disappointed. It has a very complete collection of her most famous works. Unfortunately, so few people in the English-speaking U.S. has even heard of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. I was first introduced to her wonderful poetry in a Mexican History / English dyad in college. Since that first poem I read, I have been searching for books of her works, and about her life. I highly recommend the addiction.