Behind the Veil: Nuns and Desire in the Early Modern Hispanic World (ILAC 216)

3–5 credits · Undergraduate

This course examines the convent as a site of expression of female agency. We will read medieval and early modern female writing to ask: how did the convent serve as a means of expressing female desire? Of granting women political influence? A place in the intellectual sphere? Authors will likely include: Teresa de Cartagena, Maria de Agreda, Teresa de Avila, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Maria de San Jose, Leonor de Ovando. As we read a diversity of genres of women's writing, we will examine how women articulate self-hood and desire in early modern Spain and the Americas through the sphere of enclosure.