Sor Juana's reply was the now famous "Respuesta a Sor Filotea," a remarkable work in which she gave a complete resumé of her life, character, literary preferences, and of a program of self-mortification that she had been practicing. But there was nothing "sisterly" about the Bishop's message, which urged Sor Juana to give up writing and devote herself entirely to religion. THE "RESPUESTA A SOR FILOTEA": Background: in 1690, a letter written by Sor Juana criticizing a well-known Jesuit sermon was published without her permission by someone using the pseudonym "Sor Filotea de la Cruz." Accompanying Sor Juana's letter was a letter from "Sor Filotea" (actually the Bishop of Puebla, Manuel Fernandez de Santa Cruz) criticizing Juana for her comments, and for the lack of serious religious content in her poems. The autobiographical "Respuesta" appears in print for the first time in the present volume (pp. She replied with the incomparable "Respuesta a Sor Filotea," the celebrated defense of women's right to intellectual freedom and learning. Sor Juana was reprimanded in 1690 by the Bishop of Puebla for her "excessive" interest in secular learning. Between 16 Sor Juana built one of the largest libraries in the New World, an immense collection which consisted of approximately 4,000 volumes. More recently she has been described as "America's first feminist" (Julie Greer Johnson). She has been described by modern scholar Arturo Torres-Ríoseco as "the last great lyric poet of Spain and the first great poet of America." In her own lifetime, she was known as "The Phoenix of Mexico" and "The Tenth Muse" (witness the title-page of the present volume). Sor Juana (1651-1695) is one of the greatest Mexican authors, and was a leading literary and intellectual figure not only in Latin America but also in Spain. Our copy is certainly the best that has come on the market in the last decade: it is preserved in a contemporary Spanish binding, and the paper stock is fresh, crisp, and unspoiled. This highly important proto-feminist treatise had circulated in manuscript for five years before it was published here for the first time in the Posthumous Works of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, who remains one of the most enduring figures of colonial Mexico. This is, of course, Sor Juana's magisterial and justly celebrated "Respuesta a Sor Filotea" which appears here on pp. FIRST EDITION of "the first statement in this hemisphere to argue a woman's right to study and teach and learn." (Peden / Stavans). Preserved in a protective blue cloth case, leather label. 121-160 in outer fore-margin (not objectionable), the paper stock strong and clean. The engraved portrait of Sor Juana is here present in facsimile on old paper, OTHERWISE COMPLETE. Title in red and black initials head and tail pieces. Advertensia, as in the Princeton copy) A-Zâ Aa-Ddâ. including title-page printed in red and black + 210 pp. Bound in contemporary Spanish sprinkled calf, red spine label (extremities somewhat rubbed but perfectly sound).
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