Sor Juana: la comparación y la hipérbole por Margo Glantz (review)

Reviews r> 85 Ercilla's sources. Guided by a solid knowledge of classical and medieval literature and of secondary material, Nicolopulos fruitfully (and always courteously) questions many previously held critical assumptions. He is particularly adept at handling the poem's manuscript tradition and is always careful to cite from only those editions of secondary works that Ercilla would have had access to. His prose is generally clear and accessible . Although poetry specialists may be left wondering why such basic elements as meter, rhythm, and rhyme find no place in a discussion of poetic imitatio, the book's thesis (however tenuous) and copious detail will make it required reading for specialists of Ercilla and, secondarily, of Camoens. Michael Kidd University ofNew Mexico Glantz, Margo. Sor Juana: la comparacidn y la hiperbole. Mexico, D.F.: Sello Bermejo/Conaculta, 2000. 255 pgs. Margo Glantz, writer, professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and leading Sor Juana scholar, has produced three major books since the important celebrations in 1995 of the nun's death: Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: iHagiografia o autobiografia? (Mexico, D.F.: Grijalbo/UNAM, 1995); Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz y sus contempordneos (Mexico, D.F.: Facultad de Filosoffa y Letras, UNAM/ Servicios Condumex, 1998); and the volume under review. Most of the essays therein were previously or subsequently published elsewhere , but having them all in one place is a great boon to researchers on Sor Juana. iHagiografia o autobiografia? is divided in two parts: in the first Glantz discusses how her contemporaries viewed Sor Juana as monster (in the same vein as Lope de Vega), then continues with Sor Juana's reflections on herself and her work. The second part examines more autobiographical material from a variety of sources, studies several of the nun's plays, and examines salient aspects of convent life. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz y sus contempordneos, of which Glantz is the editor, features selected papers from a 1995 conference she organized at UNAM. Leading Sor Juana scholars wrote essays on important figures in the nun's life (such as her confessor, Nunez de Miranda; the Bishop of Puebla; or Ortiz de Torres, the financial administrator of Sor Juana's convent, who helped her make profitable illegal investments ) or focused on other crucial topics: her public and private correspondence ; the nuns of Lisbon, who in 1692-93 asked Sor Juana to compose poetic enigmas for them; life choices for Mexican women of 86 «5 Reviews her time; lives of other Mexican nuns and saintly clerics. The book is a treasure-trove for establishing the context of Sor Juana's existence, in which there are so many information gaps, especially those surrounding her final years. La comparacidny la hiperbole collects previously-published material (principally from 1996-98), which is presented in three parts. The first, "Saberes y placeres," is a construction of Sor Juana's life, based on her works, on the observations of her contemporaries or of critics of our time. The connecting theme is that of the nature of Sor Juana's knowledge and how she acquired it. Among other events Glantz analyzes the famous episode in which the young Juana was examined by forty learned men, and underscores how important it was for the girl to present herself in just the right way so as to display her intellect yet not offend her examiners. As with so much of life at court, the examination was both a contest and a performance, governed by rigid and yet ever-shifting rules of protocol. In this section Glantz builds oh Norbert Elias's work on European court society, which she adapts to the particular realities of the viceregal court of New Spain. She points out the very fine line which Sor Juana had to walk in order to comply with her duties as a nun and yet retain the favor of the viceroys, which freed her to write secular as well as religious literature. Essential to the success of this courtly dance was the continuing flattery of her benefactors, which in Sor Juana's case resulted in such hyperbolization of attributes (comparing the vicereine with angels or deities) that it bordered on...