Gender Studies 333BW - Advanced Seminar: 'De Brujas and Other "Bad Women" in the Spanish Atlantic'

During the Spanish Empire (15th-18th centuries), women who violated the social order by failing to uphold the expected sexual morality and gender norms of the "ideal woman" were considered a danger or catergorized as "raras". They were silenced, criticized, punished, and some burned at the stake as witches. Students will study contradictory discourses of good and evil and beauty and ugliness in relation to gender in the Spanish Atlantic. We will analyze historical and literary texts as well as film versions of so-called "bad" women -- such as the Celestina, Elena/o de Céspedes, Antonio/Catalina de Erauso and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Prereq: Two 200-level Spanish courses above SPAN-212.