The Politics and Poetics of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Download or read book The Politics and Poetics of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz written by George Antony Thomas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Politics and Poetics of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz examines the role of occasional verse in the works of the celebrated colonial Mexican nun. The poems that Sor Juana wrote for special occasions (birthdays, funerals, religious feasts, coronations, and the like) have been considered inconsequential by literary historians; but from a socio-historical perspective, George Antony Thomas argues they hold a particular interest for scholars of colonial Latin American literature. For Thomas, these compositions establish a particular set of rhetorical strategies, which he labels the author's 'political aesthetics.' He demonstrates how this body of the famous nun's writings, previously overlooked by scholars, sheds new light on Sor Juana's interactions with individuals in colonial society and throughout the Spanish Empire.