Womens Literacy In Early Modern Spain And The New World

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Women's Literacy in Early Modern Spain and the New World

Author : Rosilie Hernández
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134780389
Total Pages : 456 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (347 download)

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Book Synopsis Women's Literacy in Early Modern Spain and the New World by : Rosilie Hernández

Download or read book Women's Literacy in Early Modern Spain and the New World written by Rosilie Hernández and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-17 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Containing essays from leading and recent scholars in Peninsular and colonial studies, this volume offers entirely new research on women's acquisition and practice of literacy, on conventual literacy, and on the cultural representations of women's literacy. Together the essays reveal the surprisingly broad range of pedagogical methods and learning experiences undergone by early modern women in Spain and the New World. Focusing on the pedagogical experiences in Spain, New Spain (present-day Mexico), and New Granada (Colombia) of such well-known writers as Saint Teresa of Ávila, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and María de Zayas, as well as of lesser-known noble women and writers, and of nuns in the Spanish peninsula and the New World, the essays contribute significantly to the study of gendered literacy by investigating the ways in which women”religious and secular, aristocratic and plebeian”became familiarized with the written word, not only by means of the education received but through visual art, drama, and literary culture. Contributors to this collection explore the abundant writings by early modern women to disclose the extent of their participation in the culture of Spain and the New World. They investigate how women”playwrights, poets, novelists, and nuns” applied their education both to promote literature and to challenge the male-dominated hierarchy of church and state. Moreover, they shed light on how women whose writings were not considered literary also took part in the gendering of Hispanic culture through letters and autobiographies, among other means, and on how that same culture depicted women's education in the visual arts and the literature of the period.

Women's Literacy in Early Modern Spain and the New World

Author : Dr Anne J Cruz
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN 13 : 1409478750
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Women's Literacy in Early Modern Spain and the New World by : Dr Anne J Cruz

Download or read book Women's Literacy in Early Modern Spain and the New World written by Dr Anne J Cruz and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-05-28 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Containing essays from leading and recent scholars in Peninsular and colonial studies, this volume offers entirely new research on women's acquisition and practice of literacy, on conventual literacy, and on the cultural representations of women's literacy. Together the essays reveal the surprisingly broad range of pedagogical methods and learning experiences undergone by early modern women in Spain and the New World. Focusing on the pedagogical experiences in Spain, New Spain (present-day Mexico), and New Granada (Colombia) of such well-known writers as Saint Teresa of Ávila, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and María de Zayas, as well as of lesser-known noble women and writers, and of nuns in the Spanish peninsula and the New World, the essays contribute significantly to the study of gendered literacy by investigating the ways in which women—religious and secular, aristocratic and plebeian—became familiarized with the written word, not only by means of the education received but through visual art, drama, and literary culture. Contributors to this collection explore the abundant writings by early modern women to disclose the extent of their participation in the culture of Spain and the New World. They investigate how women—playwrights, poets, novelists, and nuns— applied their education both to promote literature and to challenge the male-dominated hierarchy of church and state. Moreover, they shed light on how women whose writings were not considered literary also took part in the gendering of Hispanic culture through letters and autobiographies, among other means, and on how that same culture depicted women's education in the visual arts and the literature of the period.

The Formation of the Child in Early Modern Spain

Author : Grace E. Coolidge
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317031458
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis The Formation of the Child in Early Modern Spain by : Grace E. Coolidge

Download or read book The Formation of the Child in Early Modern Spain written by Grace E. Coolidge and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-16 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on history, literature, and art to explore childhood in early modern Spain, the contributors to this collection argue that early modern Spaniards conceptualized childhood as a distinct and discrete stage in life which necessitated special care and concern. The volume contrasts the didactic use of art and literature with historical accounts of actual children, and analyzes children in a wide range of contexts including the royal court, the noble family, and orphanages. The volume explores several interrelated questions that challenge both scholars of Spain and scholars specializing in childhood. How did early modern Spaniards perceive childhood? In what framework (literary, artistic) did they think about their children, and how did they visualize those children’s roles within the family and society? How do gender and literary genres intersect with this concept of childhood? How did ideas about childhood shape parenting, parents, and adult life in early modern Spain? How did theories about children and childhood interact with the actual experiences of children and their parents? The group of international scholars contributing to this book have developed a variety of creative, interdisciplinary approaches to uncover children’s lives, the role of children within the larger family, adult perceptions of childhood, images of children and childhood in art and literature, and the ways in which children and childhood were vulnerable and in need of protection. Studying children uncovers previously hidden aspects of Spanish history and allows the contributors to analyze the ideals and goals of Spanish culture, the inner dynamics of the Habsburg court, and the vulnerabilities and weaknesses that Spanish society fought to overcome.

The Routledge Research Companion to Early Modern Spanish Women Writers

Author : Nieves Baranda
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317043626
Total Pages : 787 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis The Routledge Research Companion to Early Modern Spanish Women Writers by : Nieves Baranda

Download or read book The Routledge Research Companion to Early Modern Spanish Women Writers written by Nieves Baranda and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-14 with total page 787 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Spain, the two hundred years that elapsed between the beginning of the early modern period and the final years of the Habsburg Empire saw a profusion of works written by women. Whether secular or religious, noble or middle class, early modern Spanish women actively composed creative works such as poetry, prose narratives, and plays. The Routledge Research Companion to Early Modern Spanish Women Writers covers the broad array of different kinds of writings – literary as well as extra-literary – that these women wrote, taking into consideration their subject positions and the cultural and historical contexts that influenced and were influenced by them. Beyond merely recognizing the individual women authors who had influence in literary, religious, and intellectual circles, this Research Companion investigates their participation in these circles through their writings, as well as the ways in which their texts informed Spain’s cultural production during the early modern period. In order to contextualize women’s writings across the historical and cultural spectrum of early modern Spain, the Research Companion is divided into six sections of general thematic interest: Women’s Worlds; Conventual Spaces; Secular Literature; Women in the Public Sphere; Private Circles; Women Travelers. Each section is subdivided into chapters that focus on specific issues or topics.

Education and Women in the Early Modern Hispanic World

Author : Elizabeth Teresa Howe
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317145860
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (171 download)

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Book Synopsis Education and Women in the Early Modern Hispanic World by : Elizabeth Teresa Howe

Download or read book Education and Women in the Early Modern Hispanic World written by Elizabeth Teresa Howe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considering the presence and influence of educated women of letters in Spain and New Spain, this study looks at the life and work of early modern women who advocated by word or example for the education of women. The subjects of the book include not only such familiar figures as Sor Juana and Santa Teresa de Jesús, but also of less well known women of their time. The author uses primary documents, published works, artwork, and critical sources drawn from history, literature, theatre, philosophy, women's studies, education and science. Her analysis juxtaposes theories espoused by men and women of the period concerning the aptitude and appropriateness of educating women with the actual practices to be found in convents, schools, court, theaters and homes. What emerges is a fuller picture of women's learning in the early modern period.

Women, Texts, and Authority in the Early Modern Spanish World

Author : Marta V. Vicente
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Women, Texts, and Authority in the Early Modern Spanish World by : Marta V. Vicente

Download or read book Women, Texts, and Authority in the Early Modern Spanish World written by Marta V. Vicente and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first essay collection to examine the relation between text and gender in Spain from a broad geographical, social and cultural perspective covering more than 300 years. The contributors examine women and the construction of gender thematically, dealing with the areas of politics, law, religion, sexuality, literature and economics, and in a variety of social categories, from Christians and Moriscas, queens and merchants, peasants and visionaries, heretics and madwomen. The essays cover different regions in the Spanish monarchy, including Andalusia, Aragon, Castile, Catalonia, Valencia and Spanish America, from the fifteenth century through to the eighteenth century. Women, Texts and Authority in Early Modern Spain focuses on two central themes: gender relations in the shaping of family and community life, and women's authority in spheres of power. The representation of women in a variety of texts such as poetry, court cases, or even account books illustrate the multifaceted world in which women lived, constantly choosing and negotiating their identities. The appeal of this collection is not limited to scholars of Spanish history and literature; it is deliberately designed to address the issue of how gender relations were constructed in the formation of modern society, and therefore will be of interest to scholars of women's and gender history generally. Because of the emphasis on how this construction occurs in texts, the collection will also be attractive to scholars interested in literary studies and/or print culture.

Women, Texts and Authority in the Early Modern Spanish World

Author : Marta V. Vicente
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351871390
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (518 download)

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Book Synopsis Women, Texts and Authority in the Early Modern Spanish World by : Marta V. Vicente

Download or read book Women, Texts and Authority in the Early Modern Spanish World written by Marta V. Vicente and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first essay collection to examine the relation between text and gender in Spain from a broad geographical, social and cultural perspective covering more than 300 years. The contributors examine women and the construction of gender thematically, dealing with the areas of politics, law, religion, sexuality, literature and economics, and in a variety of social categories, from Christians and Moriscas, queens and merchants, peasants and visionaries, heretics and madwomen. The essays cover different regions in the Spanish monarchy, including Andalusia, Aragon, Castile, Catalonia, Valencia and Spanish America, from the fifteenth century through to the eighteenth century. Women, Texts and Authority in Early Modern Spain focuses on two central themes: gender relations in the shaping of family and community life, and women's authority in spheres of power. The representation of women in a variety of texts such as poetry, court cases, or even account books illustrate the multifaceted world in which women lived, constantly choosing and negotiating their identities. The appeal of this collection is not limited to scholars of Spanish history and literature; it is deliberately designed to address the issue of how gender relations were constructed in the formation of modern society, and therefore will be of interest to scholars of women's and gender history generally. Because of the emphasis on how this construction occurs in texts, the collection will also be attractive to scholars interested in literary studies and/or print culture.

The Female as Subject

Author : P.F. Kornicki
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 1929280653
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (292 download)

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Book Synopsis The Female as Subject by : P.F. Kornicki

Download or read book The Female as Subject written by P.F. Kornicki and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2010-01-08 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Female as Subject presents 11 essays by an international group of scholars from Europe, Japan, and North America examining what women of different social classes read, what books were produced specifically for women, and the genres in which women themselves chose to write. The authors explore the different types of education women obtained and the levels of literacy they achieved, and they uncover women’s participation in the production of books, magazines, and speeches. The resulting depiction of women as readers and writers is also enhanced by thirty black-and-white illustrations. For too long, women have been largely absent from accounts of cultural production in early modern Japan. By foregrounding women, the essays in this book enable us to rethink what we know about Japanese society during these centuries. The result is a new history of women as readers, writers, and culturally active agents. The Female as Subject is essential reading for all students and teachers of Japan during the Edo and Meiji periods. It also provides valuable comparative data for scholars of the history of literacy and the book in East Asia.

Gender and Exemplarity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004438440
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Gender and Exemplarity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain by :

Download or read book Gender and Exemplarity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-09-07 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gender and Exemplarity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain gathers a series of studies on the interplay between gender, sanctity and exemplarity in regard to literary production in the Iberian peninsula. The first section examines how women were con¬strued as saintly examples through narratives, mostly composed by male writers; the second focuses on the use made of exemplary life-accounts by women writers in order to fashion their own social identity and their role as authors. The volume includes studies on relevant models (Mary Magdalen, Virgin Mary, living saints), means of transmission, sponsorship and agency (reading circles, print, patronage), and female writers (Leonor López de Córdoba, Isabel de Villena, Teresa of Ávila) involved in creating textual exemplars for women. Contributors are: Pablo Acosta-García, Andrew M. Beresford, Jimena Gamba Corradine, Ryan D. Giles, María Morrás, Lesley K. Twomey, Roa Vidal Doval, and Christopher van Ginhoven Rey.

Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe

Author : Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110875290X
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (87 download)

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Book Synopsis Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe by : Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks

Download or read book Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe written by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fourth edition of Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks's prize-winning survey features significant changes to every chapter, designed to reflect the newest scholarship. Global issues have been threaded throughout the book, while still preserving the clear thematic structure of previous editions. Thus readers will find expanded discussions of gendered racial hierarchies, migration, missionaries, and consumer goods. In addition, there is enhanced coverage of recent theoretical directions; the ideas, beliefs, and practices of ordinary people; early industrialization; women's learning, letter writing, and artistic activities; emotions and sentiments; single women and same-sex relations; masculinities; mixed-race and enslaved women; and the life course from birth to death. With geographically broad coverage, including Russia, Scandinavia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Iberian Peninsula, this remains the leading text on women and gender in Europe in this period. Accompanying this essential reading is a completely revised website featuring extensive updated bibliographies, web links, and primary source material.

Early Modern Women's Writing

Author : Martine van Elk
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319332228
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (193 download)

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Book Synopsis Early Modern Women's Writing by : Martine van Elk

Download or read book Early Modern Women's Writing written by Martine van Elk and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-01-09 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first comparative study of early modern English and Dutch women writers. It explores women’s rich and complex responses to the birth of the public sphere, new concepts of privacy, and the ideology of domesticity in the seventeenth century. Women in both countries were briefly allowed a public voice during times of political upheaval, but were increasingly imagined as properly confined to the household by the end of the century. This book compares how English and Dutch women responded to these changes. It discusses praise of women, marriage manuals, and attitudes to female literacy, along with female artistic and literary expressions in the form of painting, engraving, embroidery, print, drama, poetry, and prose, to offer a rich account of women’s contributions to debates on issues that mattered most to them.

Writing Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain

Author : Ronald E. Surtz
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 1512808172
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (128 download)

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Book Synopsis Writing Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain by : Ronald E. Surtz

Download or read book Writing Women in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain written by Ronald E. Surtz and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

The Lives of Women

Author : Lisa Vollendorf
Publisher : Vanderbilt University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780826514813
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (148 download)

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Book Synopsis The Lives of Women by : Lisa Vollendorf

Download or read book The Lives of Women written by Lisa Vollendorf and published by Vanderbilt University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recovering voices long relegated to silence, this work deciphers the responses of women to the culture of control in seventeenth-century Spain. It incorporates convent texts, Inquisition cases, biographies, and women's literature to reveal a previously unrecognized boom in women's writing between 1580 and 1700.

Women in the Discourse of Early Modern Spain

Author : Joan Cammarata
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780813025780
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (257 download)

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Book Synopsis Women in the Discourse of Early Modern Spain by : Joan Cammarata

Download or read book Women in the Discourse of Early Modern Spain written by Joan Cammarata and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The questions and approaches . . . really get my respect by the way they are argued. Some of these essays will spark controversy as to method; all of them will make changes in the way we teach the Spanish classics and in what classics we do teach."--Michael L. Perna, Hunter College "Covering various critical approaches to the study of feminine discourse, this collection helps the reader understand important issues in the field of women writers of Early Modern Spain and includes in one volume both the masculine and the feminine point of view of women writers and women characters in the Golden Age literature of Spain."--Maria Castro de Moux, U.S. Naval Academy Women in the Discourse of Early Modern Spain addresses the important methodological and conceptual issues surrounding the lives, works, and representations of women in the literature of Early Modern Spain. It offers a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of feminine identity and discourse both in the writings of both women and men. The essays move beyond the theme of women and literature in Early Modern Spain to reassess the economic, legal, political, and religious systems that articulate the parameters of women's access to power and self-determination in the past as well as in the present. Written by internationally known contributors, the discussions treat those writers of Early Modern Spain who have a broad appeal to today's readers and critics: the major authors of Spain's literary canon, as well as several authors who have recently inspired recognition and keen interest. Contents Introduction, by Joan F. Cammarata Part I. A Woman's Self-Fashioning: The Private Gendered Spaces of Feminine Authority 1. Authorizing the Wife/Mother in 16th-Century Advice Manuals, by Carolyn Nadeau 2. Identity, Illusion, and the Emergence of the Feminine Subject in La Lozana andaluza, by John C. Parrack 3. Skepticism and Mysticism in Early Modern Spain: The Combative Stance of Teresa de Avila, by Barbara Mujica Part II. Appropriation and Authenticity of Feminine Identity 4. The Price of Love: The Conflictive Economies of La gitanilla, by William H. Clamurro 5. The Problematics of Gender/Genre in Vida i sucesos de la monja alferez, by Rainer H. Goetz 6. Relaciones de fiestas: Ana Caro's Accounts of Public Spectacles, by Sharon D. Voros Part III. Cultural Constructs of the Feminine Psyche: Body, Mind, and Desire 7. Masquerade and the Comedia, by Anita K. Stoll 8. Dreams, Voices, Signatures: Deciphering Woman's Desires in Angela de Azevedo's Dicha y desdicha del juego, by Frederick A. de Armas 9. Galatea's Fall and the Inner Dynamics of G�ngora's Fabula de Polifemo y Galatea, by Joseph V. Ricapito Part IV. Power Stratagems of the Feminine Word: Constraints of Silence and Authority of Discourse 10. De voz extremada: Cervantes' Women Characters Speak for Themselves, by Sara A. Taddeo 11. Silence Is/As Golden . . . Age Device: Ana Caro's Eloquent Reticence in Valor, agravio y mujer, by Monica Leoni 12. Woman of the World and World of the Woman in the Narrative of Mariana de Caravajal, by Louis Imperiale Part V. Transforming Literary Conventions: Feminine Aesthetics and Gender Norms 13. A Cry in the Wilderness: Pastoral Female Discourse in Maria de Zayas, by Deborah Compte 14. Zayas's Ideal of the Masculine: Clothes Make the Man, by Susan Paun de Garc�a 15. Desire Unbound: Women's Theater of Spain's Golden Age, by Lisa Vollendorf Joan F. Cammarata is professor of Spanish at Manhattan College.

Women in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700

Author : Cissie C. Fairchilds
Publisher : Pearson
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis Women in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700 by : Cissie C. Fairchilds

Download or read book Women in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700 written by Cissie C. Fairchilds and published by Pearson. This book was released on 2007 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this wide-ranging volume, Cissie Fairchilds rejects conventional accounts of the Early Modern period that claim it was a period of diminishing power and rights for European women. Instead, she shows that it was a period of positive changes that challenged and led to the eventual destruction of traditional misogynist notions that women were inferior to men. The book explores the historical basis of patriarchal views of women and describes the great intellectual debate over the nature and roles of women taking place at the time. It gives an account of women's daily lives and looks at women's work during the period. The book also deals with the role of women in religion and with witchcraft and the prosecution of women as witches. The book concludes by examining the relationship between women and the State.

Woman and Art in Early Modern Latin America

Author : Kellen Kee McIntyre
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9047410998
Total Pages : 469 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (474 download)

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Book Synopsis Woman and Art in Early Modern Latin America by : Kellen Kee McIntyre

Download or read book Woman and Art in Early Modern Latin America written by Kellen Kee McIntyre and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2006-11-30 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illustrated anthology brings together for the first time a collection of essays that explore the position of women and the contributions made by them to the arts and architecture of early modern Latin America.

Guardianship, Gender, and the Nobility in Early Modern Spain

Author : Grace E. Coolidge
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351931997
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (519 download)

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Book Synopsis Guardianship, Gender, and the Nobility in Early Modern Spain by : Grace E. Coolidge

Download or read book Guardianship, Gender, and the Nobility in Early Modern Spain written by Grace E. Coolidge and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to early modern patriarchal assumptions, this study argues that rather trying to impose obedience or enclosure on women of their own rank and status, noblemen in early modern Spain depended on the active collaboration of noblewomen to maintain and expand their authority, wealth, and influence. While the image of virtuous, secluded, silent, and chaste women did bolster male authority in general and help to assure individual noblemen that their children were their own, the presence of active, vocal, and political women helped these same men move up the social ladder, guard their property and wealth, gain political influence, win legal battles, and protect their minor heirs. Drawing on a variety of documents-guardianships, wills, dowry and marriage contracts, lawsuits, genealogies, and a few letters-from the family archives of the nine noble families housed in the Osuna and Frías collections in Toledo, Guardianship, Gender and the Nobility in Early Modern Spain explores the lives and roles of female guardians. Grace Coolidge examines in detail the legal status of these women, their role within their families, and their responsibilities for the children and property in their care. To Spanish noblemen, Coolidge argues, the preservation of family, power, and lineage was more important than the prescriptive gender roles of their time, and faced with the emergency generated by the premature death of the male title holder, they consistently turned to the adult women in their families for help. Their need for support and for allies against their own mortality meant, in turn, that they expected and trained their female relatives to take an active part in the economic and political affairs of the family.