Lesbians in Early Modern Spain

Notes

179 Notes Except where otherwise noted, the translations of texts originally published inSpanisharemine.InsomecasesIhavemodernizedspellingandpunctua­ tion for readability. Chapter 1 1. For discussion of the acts paradigm, see Halperin, 24–47, 167; Sedgwick, 46–48; and Borris, Sciences, 4. 2. In her discussion of the “bickering over terminology,” Emma Donoghue concludes ,“Both extremes seem to me to verge on silliness (‘Joan of Arc was a dyke’ vs.‘lesbianism was invented in the late nineteenth century’)” (Inseparable, 203). 3. In response to other scholars’ focus on self-awareness as a determining factor for premodern identity, Robinson argues that early modern homosexual writers and readers did “conceive of themselves as characterized at least in part by an enduring sexual or romantic attraction to members of their own sex . . . I see no reason why some women who loved and desired women and some men who loved and desired men could not have had the sort of less-developed identities or self-concepts I’ve just described” (8–9). 4. Sappho, who was significant in literary discourses in early modern England, also became“the most prominent exemplar of erotic behaviors between women in the nonliterary discourses and texts through which her erotic reputation was also circulated” (Andreadis, 39). 5. In recent years, many scholars have investigated lesbian sexuality in early modern Europe. The most notable of these studies to date are Valerie Traub’s The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England, Judith C. Brown’s Im­ modest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, Denise A. Walen’s Constructions of Female Homoeroticism in Early Modern Drama, Harriette Andreadis ’s Sappho in Early Modern England: Female Same-Sex Literary Erotics 1550–1714, Emma Donoghue’s Inseparable: Desire between Women in Lit­ erature, and Mary-Michelle DeCoste’s Hopeless Love: Boiardo, Ariosto, and Nar­ ratives of Queer Female Desire. There has also been an impressive groundswell of essays related to homosexuality in Spain and Latin America published in anthologies such as Lesbianism and Homosexuality in Early Modern Spain (edited by María José Delgado and Alain Saint-Saens); Hispanisms and 180 Notes to Pages 4–17 Homosexualities (edited by Sylvia Molloy and Robert McKee Irwin); Reading and Writing the Ambiente: Queer Sexualities in Latino, Latin American, and Spanish Culture (edited by Susana Chávez-Silverman and Librada Hernández); Queer Iberia: Sexualities, Cultures, and Crossings from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance (edited by Josiah Blackmore and Gregory S. Hutcheson); ¿Entiendes? Queer Readings, Hispanic Writings (edited by Emilie L. Bergmann and Paul Julian Smith); Spanish Writers on Gay and Lesbian Themes (edited by David William Foster); and Tortilleras: Hispanic and U.S. Latina Lesbian Expression (edited by Lourdes Torres and Inmaculada Pertusa). The overwhelming majority of essays in these volumes on Hispanic homoeroticism are not focused on lesbians in the early modern period (even Lesbianism and Homosexuality in Early Modern Spain features more essays on male homoeroticism than desire between women). While these studies provide stimulating and challenging material related to non­ traditional desire, no study to date has focused exclusively on the representation of same-sex desire between women in early modern Spain and its empire. 6. The third of the three most important canonical women writers in Spain’s early modern empire is Saint Teresa of Avila—also known as Saint Teresa of Jesus— who wrote extensively on the possibilities of dangerous erotic liaisons in the convent. 7. Tribade, fricatrice, and rubster refer to women who derive sexual pleasure from rubbing their genitals against other women. Tribade was also used generally to describe women who engage in sexual relations with other women, and more specifically to a woman who penetrated another with a dildo or an extraordinarily large clitoris. 8. Plays containing allusions to Queen Christina include Calderón’s Afectos de odio y amor (1658) and La protestación de la fe (1656), and Francisco Bances Candamos’s ¿Quién es quien premia al Amor? (1686–1687). Chapter 2 1. See Crompton,“Myth,” and Brown, Immodest, 6. 2. See also Crompton,“Myth,” 15. 3. For the Spanish text, see Nueva recopilación, 428. See also Kamen, 207. 4. See Nueva recopilación, 428. See also Bennassar, 299. 5. “Las mugeres que cometen tal delito deben ser arrojadas al fuego, según la Pragm ática de los Reyes Católicos” (329). See also Crompton,“Myth,” 18. 6. “La unión de dos mugeres segun el cit. autor, no es posible que resulte polución, apareciendo tan solo el desorden de su...