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44 Chapter 2 Teresa de Jesús: Woman of Letters T he wide variety of people with whom Teresa de Ávila corresponded makes her letters a goldmine of information. She takes the time to write a thank-you note to the mother of a novice for a gift of lard and quince jelly (Letters 1, 31 October 1574). With her brothers and sisters she shares gossip and family news. She offers her nuns and friars spiritual advice, encouraging them when they flag. To her collaborators she reveals her fears for the reform, her anger at its enemies, and her exasperation at the impolitic behavior of some of her collaborators. She counsels her prioresses on the running of convents, advocating leniency rather than rigor. To her friends and relatives she complains about her health, admitting to being exhausted by her workload and even close to depression. She writes to María de San José about the intrigues and persecutions instigated by the Calced Carmelites. To Gracián she offers encouragement, spiritual direction , and an occasional reprimand. She maintains an animated correspondence with church and state officials and even dares to write to the king. She groans constantly about the martyrdom of letter-writing. Unfortunately , Teresa destroyed the letters she received from others, making it impossible to reconstruct epistolary dialogues.1 Even so, her letters create a fascinating picture of the intricacies of the reform and of conventual life in early modern Spain. Teresa’s correspondence reveals her warmth and humanity, but also her political acumen and administrative talents. It provides examples of her speech when she addresses people of different backgrounds for different purposes. Because they are often (although not always) less guarded than her books, Teresa’s letters reveal her personality more accurately than her other writing. Still, it would be naive to assume that Teresa’s epistolary writing represents a completely sincere, spontaneous expression of her thoughts. Claudio Guillén shows to what extent an early modern letter writer could use correspondence to advance a particular version of himself. Lisa Jardine argues in Erasmus, Man of Letters that the great humanist used correspondence to depict himself as a master scholar, establishing his authority by publishing it in a printed volume. Teresa had no intention of Teresa de Jesús: Woman of Letters 45 circulating her missives on a large scale, but, as Slade has pointed out, Teresa’s letters, like her books, comprise a “project of self-representation” (St. Teresa xiii). In her study of the correspondence of early modern Italian women, Maria Luisa Doglio remarks that in a period when every aspect of a woman’s life is dictated by men, in letters “woman becomes subject rather than object,” an active “maker of her own image” (17).2 Unlike Vidas, letters freed women to express themselves without fear of official censorship. As we shall see, Teresa adopted diverse letter-writing styles in accordance with her purpose, fashioning multiple self-images (authority figure, spiritual guide, obedient daughter, innocent victim, etc.) as suited her needs. The Public Nature of Personal Letters In Teresa’s time the influence of private correspondence could be far-reaching . Among family members and religious communities, personal letters were routinely shared with others. John O’Malley notes that correspondence was used among the first Jesuits to achieve “union of hearts.” As Jesuits spread out from Japan to the New World, letters became a vehicle to maintain cohesion within the order. Rectors wrote to provincials and provincials to the father general as often as once a week. Jesuits wrote unofficial letters for the purpose of edifying each other, and these letters were often passed around or read at table (62–63). Likewise, the communication network Teresa and her collaborators maintained through letters facilitated their work. In an age when information traveled slowly, the thirst for news was enormous. Letters were often meant to be read not only by the addressee but also by other nuns and male associates. Teresa and her disciples constantly wrote letters to inform , encourage, or instruct others with the expectation that some would become semipublic documents. Sometimes Teresa addresses a letter to a whole convent.3 These letters were read at mealtimes or at other gatherings , as were sermons or spiritual books. Josefina C. López points out that the custom of reading aloud to groups, widely practiced in the sixteenth century, helps to explain the orality of much of Teresa’s writing: “Teresa not only writes, but ‘speaks’ in her writing and...

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