The Three Secular Plays of Sor Juana Inιs de la Cruz: A Critical Study (Studies in Romance Languages) [Hardcover]

Guillermo Schmidhuber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0813120888 | ISBN-13: 978-0813120881

" Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695) wrote poetry, prose, and plays and is considered the greatest of Mexican women writers. She was an intellectual prodigy, reportedly mastering Latin in twenty lessons, and at sixteen she entered a convent so that she might continue her learning. One of the most influential early feminists in the New World, she answered a bishop's criticism in a letter that has become a classic defense of the education of women. She collected a private library of 4,000 volumes, but when she was told that her studies were delaying the progress of her spiritual education, she gave away her books and devoted herself to religious studies. Traditionally, scholars have attributed only one complete play to Sor Juana, but in 1989 Guillermo Schmidhuber discovered a lost play, The Second Celestina, which he proved conclusively to be Sor Juana's earliest comedia, co-authored with Agustin Salazar y Torres. His critical study is the first dedicated exclusively to the secular plays and the first to confirm Sor Juana's authorship of three dramatic pieces. Combining literary history and criticism, Schmidhuber explores the life and originality of Sor Juana's dramas and helps elucidate her enigmatic genius. Though Sor Juana's work as a poet and intellectual has received increasing attention in the last decade, writing about her has rarely taken into account her role as dramatist. Schmidhuber helps correct this critical imbalance by examining Sor Juana's plays in light of dramatic theory. He finds elements of both mannerist and baroque theater in her work, sometimes both within the same play. Critic and playwright Guillermo Schmidhuber is Secretary of Culture for Jalisco state in Mexico. Shelby Thacker teaches Spanish at Asbury College.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A good secondary source on a hitherto unstudied topic." -- British Bulletin of Publications of Latin America, the Caribbean, Portugal and S

"Will remain the authoritative account of this portion of Sor Juana's theatre for years to come. It is therefore a must for all Sor Juana scholars and, as well, for every university library." -- Caliope

"Schmidhuber clearly knows this material well and has invested his energy in preparing a superb collection." -- George Woodyard

"A mix of literary history, criticism, and solidly-based interpretation that blends into a unique kind of study." -- Leon Lyday

"A demonstration of Sor Juana's mastery of the style, form, and genre of Golden Age theater." -- Seventeenth-Century News

"Schmidhuber's critical study is the first dedicated exclusively to the secular plays and the first to confirm Sor Juana's authorship of three dramatic pieces." -- Translation Review

"Combining literary history and criticism, Schmidhuber explores the life and originality of Sor Juana's dramas and helps elucidate her enigmatic genius." -- wirting-romance.blogspot.com

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (March 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813120888
• ISBN-13: 978-0813120881
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,882,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Guillermo Schmidhuber de la Mora labored to several Monterrey Industrial groups for 19 years in the fields of quality control and human resources. His titles are: Chemical Engineer at the University of Guadalajara, MBA at Wharton School of Business University of Pennsylvania, MA and PhD in Humanities at University of Cincinnati.

As an author, he has published 94 books, and as playwright has been cited as one of the most important Mexican playwright's in Felicia Hardson Londré's. The History of World Theatre, and in Cambridge Encyclopedia of World Theatre. He is a specialist in Mexican theatre of the 20s and 30s. As an author he has won innumerable prizes at home and abroad, including the 1987 Letras de Oro for best work in Spanish in the United States (1987), and the National Award of Theatre by the Mexican government (1980). His works have been published in more than eighty books in Argentina, France, Germany, Spain, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, the U.S., and Mexico.

He taught at the University of Louisville, the University of Kentucky, and at several Mexican universities. As a researcher his achievements include the discovery of two previously lost texts of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; one of them, The Second Celestina, was published with a prologue by Octavio Paz. He is full professor at the University of Guadalajara and guest professor at ITESM.

Among his most notable works as an author are: Obituary (Obituario), The Useless Heroes (Los Heroes Inútiles), The Heirs of Segismund (Los Herederos de Segismundo), The Secret Friendship of Juana and Dorothy (La Secreta Amistad de Juana y Dorotea), Never Say Adiós to Columbus, among others thirty plays. His novel Women of the Tequila Volcano has been published simultaneously in Argentina and Mexico. His plays have been translated into German, French and English.

He was Cultural Attaché for the State of Jalisco 1995-2001, Mexico, and worked for 8 years as museum director in Tijuana and Monterrey, México.

He lives in Guadalajara, México, where he continues teaching and writing books, with the company of his wife and three children.
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