Approaches to Teaching the Works of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Book excerpt: "This volume addresses the religious, sociocultural, and political context of colonial society. Sor Juana lived in a convent, a community of women whose lives were strictly regulated by the rules of their order (in her case, the Hieronymites). She was subject to the authority of the bishop and other clerics. She lived in the capital of an enormously wealthy colonized region whose vast territory and many inaccessible rural areas created governance nightmares. She participated in a highly stratified colonial society in which class, race, religion, and gender determined performative behaviors to a great extent. She was subject to a power struggle between the secular and religious arms of government, as well as internecine church conflicts. Her ability to throw off some of the weight of restrictions and limitations on a woman of her temperament, vocation, and family background remains truly remarkable"--Emilie L. Bergmann and Stacey Schlau, Preface, p. xii.