Speaker: Ana Maria Diaz-Burgos, Department of Hispanic Studies, Oberlin College - Academia.edu Google Scholar ORCID

Abstract: »In this paper, I propose to read Miguel de Cervantes's approach in his Exemplary Novels (1613) to female virtue and female perversity as participating in an elliptical movement. Baroque par excellence, the ellipse/is, as a geometrical and rhetorical figure, brought to the fore the astronomic and figurative tensions between a visible focus and one obscured, and their mutual dependency. Although critics have praised Cervantes for creating virtuous female characters who embodied moral modesty, selfless maternity, and even fair government, and oftentimes challenged the limits of the established order, their virtue never went uncontested. The ellipse's bright focus, thus, always depended on and was overshadowed by the persistence of female perversity, which constituted the obscured but incessant focus. In particular, I will show how seemingly unimportant female characters, such as the nameless lady-in-waiting in “La española inglesa” [The English Spanishwoman] and Ms. Marialonso in “El celoso extremeño” [The Jealous Extremaduran], illustrate women's perversity capable of destroying virtues and mores through wicked deeds and words. However, their presence justified the protagonists' exemplarity and redemption.« (Source: Online Program)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of Spain / Habsburg Spain | Fiction: Fictional victims of sexual assault | Literature: Spanish literature / Miguel de Cervantes, Novelas Ejemplares, El celoso extremeño | Sex and the law: Sexual assault