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Teaching and Learning the Sciences in Islamicate Societies (800–1700). Sonja Brentjes. Studies on the Faculty of Arts: History and Influence 3. Turnhout: Brepols, 2018. 334 pp. €45.

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New Spain through a detailed analysis of the imagery of the Virgin Mary in several musicopoetic compositions—villancincos—and other ritual pieces by Sor Juana. Chapter 4 expands on the idea of… Click to show full abstract

New Spain through a detailed analysis of the imagery of the Virgin Mary in several musicopoetic compositions—villancincos—and other ritual pieces by Sor Juana. Chapter 4 expands on the idea of a feminine intellect and sonority, explored in chapter 3, by incorporating several concepts from affect theory and sensory perception into an analysis of the reimagining of Ovid’s Eco and Narcissus in Sor Juana’s romance 8 and in her play El divino Narciso. Chapter 5, perhaps the most suggestive of all six chapters, considers the importance of silence and nonverbal vocalizations in Sor Juana’s two major works, Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz and Primero sueño, and argues, compellingly, that tensions between visuality and aurality in those works reflect the nun’s position with respect to New Spain’s ecclesiastical hegemony and her transposing of “censorship and silencing . . . as alternative expressive modes that challenge masculine dominance from a position of apparent concord” (183). Finally, chapter 6, a coda to chapter 5 and a conclusion to the whole monograph, turns to sonority and its relationship to knowledge and female agency in Primero sueño. The scope, originality, and thoroughness of Hearing Voices are remarkable. The book’s informed interdisciplinary focus opens up new and stimulating ways to study the rich musicopoetic tradition of early modern Hispanic literature and culture. It also provides a coherent theoretical apparatus to reconsider questions of hegemony, gender, and agency in early New Spain’s conventual culture, and the early modern Hispanic world in general. Finally, it demonstrates the prevalence of aurality and sound culture in the Hispanic Baroque, and the need to further explore it. Despite some questions regarding its content (given the importance of hearing in early modern sensory hierarchies, to what extent can aurality be considered a means for expressing marginality?) and structure (wouldn’t it have been more effective to incorporate chapter 6 into chapter 5, and to expand on the conclusion?), Hearing Voices is an important contribution to the field of Sor Juana studies, and it will interest scholars in early modern Hispanic, European, and colonial studies, as well as in sound studies and gender and women’s studies.

Keywords: chapter; new spain; sor juana; teaching learning; modern hispanic; early modern

Journal Title: Renaissance Quarterly
Year Published: 2020

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