Abstract

This study proposes that María de Zayas's collections of novellas may be read together as a two-pronged response to the sort of open-ended, out-of-control female desire that Zayas had earlier portrayed in her one extant play, La traición en la amistad. The treacherous, desirous female protagonist of La traición, Fenisa, finds her counterpart in the novella collections in the figure of Lisarda, whose apparent victory over her rival Lisis in the Novelas amorosas provokes a carefully-structured response by the latter in the Desengaños—a response specifically designed to quash the threats posed by seemingly endless female desire.

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