The Powers of Storytelling Women in Libro De Los Engaños De Las Mujeres
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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE SPANISH SHAHRAZ D AND HER ENTOURAGE: THE POWERS OF STORYTELLING WOMEN IN LIBRO DE LOS ENGAÑOS DE LAS MUJERES Zennia Désirée Hancock, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation Directed By: Associate Professor Carmen Benito -Vessels Department of Spanish and Portuguese The anonymous Libro de los engaños e asayamientos de las mugeres (LEM ) is a collection of exempla consisting of a frame tale and twenty -three interpolated tales. It forms part of the Seven Sages/Sindib d cycle , shares source material with the Arabic Alf layla wa layla (A Thousand and One Nights ), and was ordered translated from Arabic into Romance by Prince Fadrique of Castile in 1253. In the text, females may be seen as presented according to the traditional archetypes of Eve and the Virgin Mary; however, the ambivalence of the work allows that it be interpreted as both misogynous and not, which complicates the straightforward designation of its female characters as “good” and bad.” Given this, th e topos of Eva/Ave as it applies to this text is re -evaluated. The reassessment is effected by exploring the theme of ambivalence and by considering the female characters as hybrids of both western and eastern tradition. The primary female character of the text, dubbed the “Spanish Shahraz d,” along with other storytelling women in the interpolated tales, are proven to transcend binary paradigms through their intellect, which cannot be said to be inherently either good or evil, and which is expressed through speech acts and performances. Chapter I reviews the historical background of Alfonsine Spain and the social conditions of medieval women, and discusses the portr ayal of females in literature, while Chapter II focuses on the history of the exempla, LEM , and critical approaches to the text, and then identifies Bakhtin’s theory of the carnivalesque and Judith Butler’s speech act theory of injurious language as appropriate methodologies, explaining how both are nuanced by feminist perspectives. A close reading of the text demonstrates how it may be interpreted as a misogynous work. Chapter III applies the theoretical tools in order to problematise the misogynous reading of the text and to demonstrate the agency of its female speaker -performers; the anal ysis centres on the Spanish Shahraz d, who represents a female subjectivity that transcends binary depictions of women and represents a holistic ideal of existence that is reflected in the calculated, harmonized use of both her intellect and corporeality. THE SPANI SH SHAHRAZ D AND HER ENTOURAGE: THE POWERS OF STORYTELLING WOMEN IN LIBRO DE LOS ENGAÑOS DE LAS MUJERES by Zennia Désirée Hancock Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2004 Advisory Committee: Associate Professor Carmen Benito -Vessels , Chair Professor Sandra Cypess Associate Professor Ana-Patricia Rodríguez Associate Professor Hern án Sánchez Martínez de Pinillos Associate Professor Richard Walker © Copyright by Zennia D. Hancock 2004 Dedication In memory of my grandfather, Thomas Barnes, 19 25-2001. ii Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to briefly thank the people that have supported me both professionally and personally in the writing of this dissertation and in the completion of other doctoral degree requirements over the past six -and-a-half years. I thank my a dvisor, Dr. Carmen Benito -Vessels, for always being so encourag ing and accessible , and for teaching me through challenge and example . Thanks to all of my former professors and mentors at the University of Maryland at College Park , for having contributed to so many different areas of my training and professional development . Wholehearted thanks to the Graduate School and to the St. Andrew's Society of Washington, D.C. for their generous funding . I also wish to thank my department chair , Dr. Jeff Chamberlain , of George Mason University , for his unwavering support and good humour. Finally, my greatest thanks go to my family and friends on both sides of the Atlantic , and in both hemispheres, as well as to an incredibly understanding , caring, and patient husban d. Thank you all for believing in me. iii Table of Contents List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... v Chapter I: The Historical Context...................................................................................... 1 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 1 From the Muslim Invasion to Alfonso X and the Thirteenth Century .......................... 14 Women in Medieval Society: Religious and Physiological Treatises, and Socio - Economic Practices ........................................................................................... 27 Complicating Misogyny: Women Protected, Empowered, and Defended .................. 39 Mary Magdalene and Speaking Women ....................................................................... 53 Beyond the Binary: Shahraz d and the Spanish Shahraz d......................................... 61 Chapter II: Criticism and Methodologies ........................................................................ 66 Exempla and Traditions ................................................................................................ 66 The Siete Sabios/Sindib d Cycle and LEM .................................................................. 74 The Edition Used .......................................................................................................... 90 The Patron of the Text: Prince Fadrique...................................................................... 96 Critical Approaches to the Study of Exempla: Text Typologies and Narratology .... 110 The Suitability of Narratological Systems as Applied to Medieval Literature: In Search of a Methodology ................................................................................ 114 Questioning Authority: Barthes, Genette, and Bakhtin ............................................. 128 A Medievalist -Feminist Perspective........................................................................... 134 The Voice of the State and Constructions of Love: Female Depravity and Male Solidarity ......................................................................................................... 142 Chapter III: The Spanish Shahraz d and Her Entourage Speak .................................... 166 The Frame Story of LEM ............................................................................................ 166 Bakhtin’s Theory of the Carnival ............................................................................... 181 The Carnival in LEM: From Crownings and Masquerades to Billingsgate and Hyperbole ........................................................................................................ 185 The Shahraz ds: A Comparison................................................................................. 202 The Power of the Performing Word: Speech Acts and Influence .............................. 209 Conclusions................................................................................................................. 222 Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 232 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 237 iv List of Tables 1. Praise/Abuse Dir ected Towards Women ……………………………………181 v Chapter I : The Historical Context Introduction As is the case with so many fragments of our western literary tradition, the origins of the anonymous Libro de los engaños e asayamientos de las mugeres (LEM ) lie in the East, where one of its ancient forefathers spoke Sanskrit and was clothed in a collection of words that bore the title Panchata ntra . Under this name, those words journeyed from India to Persia, to become the Tuti Nahmeh , before leaving for the Arabian Peninsula, where they adopted other names, such as the Hebrew Mishle Sendebar and the Arabic Alf layla wa layla . They continued ever westward, borne by the hands and tongues of conquerors and wanderers, until they reached entirely different eyes and ears, in the world of medieval Europe. Thus Semitic peoples brought the words to the Iberian Peninsula, where, in an Arabic manuscript that is long lost to us, they arrived in thirteenth -century Castile and found an admiring patron who belonged to a royal family known for its love of literature and learning. Prince Fadrique, brother to Alfonso X of Castile, adopted the words and sponsored their translation into romance , the Spanish vernacular, in 1253. LEM begins with a frame tale concerning the fulfillment of a prophecy, and an episode modelled after the story of “Potiphar’s Wife ”: One of the king’s ninety concubines propositions her stepson, the prince, and when he rejects her, she claims that he tried to violate her. The prince cannot defend himself since his tutor, Çendubete, having foretold possible doom if the young man utters a word, has bound him to an oath of silence for seven days. These circumstances instigate an eight-day trial, which is narrated within the frame by way of interpolated stories told by the opposing parties; the 1 queen tells