Prostituidas por el texto. Discurso prostibulario en la picaresca femenina (review)

Enriqueta Zafra's monograph, Prostituidas por el texto. Discurso prostibulario en la picaresca femenina, presents the world of the prostitute in female picaresque novels and compares it to contemporary moral, legal and social discourses that also treat prostitution. Her well researched work provides scholars today with a thorough examination of the interplay among these different arenas and the important role of picaresque novels in defining social values and discursive strategies that sought to control 'public' women.

The work is divided into five rich, complex chapters that look at the prostitute from her formative years to her final days as alcahueta and the narrative strategies that attempt to enclose her. At the risk of oversimplifying, Chapter 1 approaches prostitution from the perspective of legal and moral discourses and manuals of conduct, and shows how female picaresque fiction plays a role in shaping these discourses. Zafra's treatment of the moral dialogue in Spain of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries brings into focus nuances of many issues, from legalizing brothels to eradicating prostitution completely. Her movement from the writings of Francisco Farfán and the nun Magadalena de San Jerónimo to Gabriel Maqueda and Gerónimo Velázquez, and covering a dozen other voices in between, reflects the strength of her research and offers today's readers a solid understanding of moral discourse as it relates to prostitution.

Each of the remaining chapters deals with specific fictional texts and some aspect of the contemporary issues surrounding them. For example, Chapter 2 examines the dynamic between repentant women from hagiographic literature and prostitutes in the anonymous La pícara Justina, and issues of control that surround the two. It also looks at the marital status of prostitutes and suggests that marriage provided an escape from the brothel for the working woman. Chapter 3 analyses perceptions of 'free' women in Cervantes' Don Quixote - at the inn, Aldonza, Dorotea and Altisidora. Promiscuity, forwardness and eloquence are seen as characteristics of prostitutes and any woman possessing these characteristics is construed as a prostitute. For Zafra, Cervantes creates 'una apertura hacia un espacio más libre en que crear y realizarse' (91) for the picaresque literary genre and for the female gender. Chapter 4 focuses on the brothel and public spaces as they are presented in Delicado's La lozana andaluza and the anonymous Vida y costumbre de la madre Andrea. Here, Zafra makes the point that literary authors differ from moralists and jurists in that, through literary conventions and the act of reading, writers of the female picaresque genre can exert social control over their public. Authors simultaneously offer readers solace and a safe place to enjoy their private actions. In this way, female picaresque literature acts as both the sickness and the cure. 'El lector no sólo experimenta el placer que el texto ofrece en su recuento de escapadas sexuales - lo mismo que el autor que al escribirlo intenta dar "olvido al dolor" (170) - sino que a la vez sirve de contraveneno, para que tanto el lector como el autor se "curen" y reformen' (129).

Here, as in other chapters, Enriqueta Zafra overlaps fictional and historic accounts of prostitutes who, in this case, seek to redeem themselves by withdrawing from society. Finally, Chapter 5 deals with the consequences/punishment of 'public' women as exemplified in Salas Barbadillo's La hija de Celestina and Zayas's 'El castigo de la miseria'. Zafra contrasts Salas Barbadillo's conclusion that the female pícara/prostitute represents the demise of civilization with Zayas's inclusion of husbands who are equally responsible for society's chaos. Both narratives lend themselves to social, moral and legal punishment for the female pícara.

One of the strengths of this study stems from Zafra's understanding of the connection between literature and society, that literature is not just an expression of cultural norms but rather, it informs them. Zafra draws from...