A Woman of Genius: The Intellectual Autobiography of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

A major declaration of women's intellectual freedom written by a Mexican nun in 1691 and published in Spain in 1701 after her death. This is the first English-language translation, first published in 1982 by a small New England press. The volume is bi-lingual, with the English translation and the original Spanish text on facing pages. Sor Juana today is one of the folklore heroines of Latin America.

The life of Juana de Asbaje, a 17th-century Mexican nun who took the name Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, is an astonishing testament to the powers of the human will under the most adverse circumstances. Born illegitimately into a humble family, in a society which frowned on even the most trivial incursions by women into the intellectual sphere, she became one of the most accomplished poets and scholars of the late Spanish Baroque, easily able to match the leading figures of her day in theology, mathematics, Biblical exegesis, music and a host of other subjects. She was entirely self-taught. Eventually, her prowess came to the attention of the Bishop of Puebla, don Manuel Fernandez de Santa Cruz y Sahgun; using the pseudonym Sor Filotea, the Bishop wrote the young nun a cautionary letter in which he explained, as charitably as he could, that it was simply not right for a woman to be engaged in serious intellectual pursuits. The text contained in the volume under review, said to be the first complete English translation, is Sor Juana s long and erudite reply to this challenge: The Response to Sor Filotea, one of the enduring masterpieces of colonial Spanish literature. -- Wm. Ferguson, Worcester Telegram ---------------------- Margaret Sayers Peden s translation, the first in English, loses none of the author s thinly veiled ire, nor the sharpness of her arguments. Peden s faithful interpretation of key words, upon which many of Sor Juana s protests pivot, maintains the document s lucidity and strength. Written within the confines of religion, inside an isolated world shielded by the Inquisition from the intellectual revolution taking place outside the Spanish realm, La Respuesta nevertheless addresses timeless universal themes. -- Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte, Los Angeles Times --Worcester (MA) Telegram & LA TIMES

Because of her writings on the subject of intellectual freedom for women, Sor Juana Ines angered some clergymen and fellow nuns who upbraided her for her boldness. She answered her critics with a work titled La Repuesta a Sor Filotea, punctuating her observations with references to the Bible and classical literature. That ended her career as a protester and she withdrew to silence in the convent. She died four years later, in 1695, during a plague. Margaret Sayers Peden, professor of Spanish-American literature at the University of Missouri, translated the awesome declaration and wrote an introduction to A Woman of Genius that gives an assessment of the nuns writings. -- UPI -------------------------- Juana Ines was a most unusual woman especially for her time and place, 17th-century Mexico. When she was three, she began to read voraciously from her grandfather s library. At eight, she moved to Mexico City to live with one of her sisters, where she soon became known for her knowledge and creativity. When she was 18, she joined the order of Saint Jerome, taking the name of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. During the next 20 years she wrote poems, plays and prose works, some sacred, some profane. As she became famous for her writings, she came under increasing criticism from the clergy, particularly from the Bishop of Puebla. Her response was a long prose work titled Reply to Sister Filotea (the Bishop had signed his pamphet with the pseudonym, Sister Filotea). The Bishop had recommended that Sor Juana keep to divine eneavors because women should be content to study for the love of learning. Her reply, a sharply worded attack on the limitations placed upon women s education, was learned and cogent and too poignant to be left unanswered by the Church. Thus Sor Juana whom Alfonso Reyes, Mexico s stellar literary figure, praised for her divine lyricism was forced to abandon her writings. She sold her books and other possessions and gave the proceeds to the convent. She became an obedient, and silent, nun. Four years later, on April 17, 1694, she died of the plague while nursing her fellow sisters. -- Joseph Schraibman, St. Louis Post-Dispatch --UPI & St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sor Juana was a harbinger of the Enlightenment, living at a time when theology was universally acclaimed The Queen of Sciences. Her sisters, uncomprehending, envied, resented, and in the end persecuted her. What a pity it is that so rich a mind should debase itself in the petty matters of this world, the bishop wrote, prompting her fiercely eloquent reply. Misunderstood and beleaguered, the inner turmoil of her troubled soul shines through the majestic prose written at the peak of her baroque but highly rational powers. Except for a few unimportant scribblings as she termed them, Sor Juana wrote nothing more. As an act of penance she gave away her beloved books, her scientific instruments and her music. The fight against such insurmountable odds as being a woman, a religious and a scientific intellect imprisoned in the 17th century, defeated even her soaring spirit. She died at 43. Shortly before her death, she had pened the prophetic lines, I am dying (who will believe it) at the hands of the thing I love the most, and what is killing me is the love I have for it. The book should introduce many new readers to the wonderful world of this 17th century woman who was perhaps destined to be discovered by a more sympathetic and understanding era our own. -- Diana Serra Cary, San Diego Union --San Diego Union