Shadow Puppets, Songs, and Sacred Feasts: Celebrations of the Indo-Portuguese Nuns in the Eighteenth-Century Real Convento de Santa Mónica, Goa, ... in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 164959125X ISBN 13: 9781649591258

Publisher: Iter Press, 2025

Synopsis

The two eighteenth-century texts translated here offer a rare glimpse into the creative lives of cloistered nuns in Asia, providing a valuable example of early modern "other voices" in a colonial context. 

The Entrada de Bonifrate para Festa dos Reis, a shadow puppet play for the feast of the Kings, and the Cartepaço da Muzica, a songbook for the feast of St. John, showcase the imaginative minds of the nuns at the Indo-Portuguese Real Convento de Santa Mónica, Goa, India. Composed for private convent audiences, these texts blend Portuguese and Spanish baroque elements with local Goan traditions. The uncensored verses celebrate convent life, critique local social norms, and affirm the nuns’ community identity, exhibiting the Mónicas’ musical talents and literary sensibilities.

About this title

About the Authors

Daniel Michon, associate professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College, is the author of Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India: History, Theory, Practice and the editor and translator with D .A. Smith of To Serve God in Holy Freedom: The Brief Rebellion of the Nuns of the Royal Convent of Santa Mónica, Goa, India, 1731–1734.

D. A. Smith has translated several Goan and Indo-Portuguese literary and historical works, including Orlando da Costa’s novel O Signo da Ira, the collected poetry of Laxmanrao Sardessai, Leonor Figueiredo’s biography of Sita Valles, and To Serve God in Holy Freedom: The Brief Rebellion of the Nuns of the Royal Convent of Santa Mónica, Goa, India, 1731–1734.

Edition details

• Publisher: Iter Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 164959125X
• ISBN 13: 9781649591258
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 230
• Editor: Michon Daniel