Demons, Nausea, and Resistance in the title: Autobiography of Isabel De Jesús (1611 1682) author: Velasco, Sherry M. publisher: University of New Mexico isbn10 | asin: 0826316646 print isbn13: 9780826316646 ebook isbn13: 9780585187440 language: English Isabel de Jesús,--sor,--1611-1682, Nuns-- Spain--Biography, Autobiography--Women authors, Women's studies--Spain-- subject Biographical methods, Women--Spain-- History--Modern period, 1600- , Demonology in literature. publication date: 1996 lcc: BX4700.I76V45 1996eb ddc: 271/.97102 Isabel de Jesús,--sor,--1611-1682, Nuns-- Spain--Biography, Autobiography--Women authors, Women's studies--Spain-- subject: Biographical methods, Women--Spain-- History--Modern period, 1600- , Demonology in literature. Page iii Demons, Nausea, and Resistance in the Autobiography of Isabel de Jesús 1611-1682 Sherry M. Velasco UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS Albuquerque Page iv Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Velasco, Sherry M. (Sherry Marie), 1962- Demons, nausea, and resistance in the autobiography of Isabel de Jesus (1611-1682) / Sherry M. Velasco.1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8263-1664-6 (cl.) 1. Isabel de Jesus, sor, 1611-1682. 2. NunsSpainBiography. 3. AutobiographyWomen authors. 4. Women's studiesSpainBiographical methods. 5. WomenSpainHistoryModern period, 1600- 6. Demonology in literature. I. Title BX4700.176V45 1996 271'.97102dc20 95-4365 CIP © 1996 by the University of New Mexico Press All rights reserved. First Edition Page v For Juan Page vii Contents Preface ix Introduction: Self-Representation and the Metanarrative 3 1. Writing a Nun's Life 7 2. The Devil, Nausea, and "Monjas Embaucadoras" 29 3. Iconographic Tradition and the Demonic Mouth 53 4. The Dialectics of Resistance: Prowriting versus 65 Antiwriting 5. Disgust, Nausea, and Writing 85 Conclusion: Isabel's Hidden Tradition 101 Notes 107 Bibliography 119 Index 127 Page ix Preface Women's self-representation through autobiography has traditionally been problematic. Forced to confront the patriarchal mandate that women remain silent, claiming a public voice seemed impossible or at least conflictive. As a result, women autobiographers have had to find acceptable ways to justify the account of their life stories by outwardly reaffirming the values of male-dominant society. At the same time they searched for a different way to tell their own stories between the lines, as if the life account were two narrations. As Sidonie Smith puts it, the woman writer "insinuates" her life story through the text of the patriarchal story (19). 1 The autobiography of the nun Isabel de Jesús reveals the rebellious pursuit of public discourse in its recounting of the life story while it also tells the conflictive version of the patriarch's story through the metanarrative. Like other early modern women writers, Isabel is able to assume silent humility by stressing that she is a reluctant author, forced to write by God and her confessor. Then, by using the cynical voice of the Devil, she expresses many of her forbidden thoughts, fears, and opinions. The mystic nun creates a dialogue in her text: a back-and-forth argument encouraging and discouraging the problematic act of a woman writing in the Church. Most often this debate is between the Devil and God, confessors, saints, or angels. This study examines the discourse of resistance expressed through the figure of the Devil and the role of nausea in the metanarrative of Isabel de Jesús' autobiography.2 The first section (chaps. 1-3) establishes the historical background for the second section (chaps. 4 and 5), which focuses on the specific characteristics of Isabel's metanarrative. Chapter 1 reviews the problematic criticism that has surrounded Isabel's writing and discusses certain aspects of and influences on her life that facilitate the understanding of her autobiography. Page x Chapters 2 and 3 are primarily contextual, setting forth dominant themes in Isabel's work in a broader Spanish and European setting. Chapter 2 examines the history of demonology and nausea in the convent and analyzes the controversial cases of women and nausea, with a special emphasis on those in Toledo, where Isabel lived. In chapter 3, the sociohistorical approach to the Devil and nausea shifts to a study of the literary and iconographic sources that help explain the association between the Devil, nausea, women, and communication. Once the historic foundation has been laid, I show how the demonic and emetic features are manifested in Isabel's autobiography. The detailed study of her metanarrative demonstrates how her work provides a unique approach to self-representation of women religious in Counter-Reformation Spain. This section shows how the Devil, nausea, and writing about writing are used, in a subversive discourse of resistance, to reverse the misogynist attitudes toward women. There are several people whose expertise and support I would like to acknowledge. My deepest thanks go to Carroll B. Johnson for his constant encouragement and insights during the preparation of this work. I would also like to thank Joaquin Gimeno Casalduero and C. Brian Morris for their helpful suggestions during the initial stages of the manuscript. A special thanks goes to my colleagues at the University of Kansas for their generosity and keen observations during the final preparation of this book. In particular, I am indebted to William Blue, Isidro Rivera, Janet Sharistanian, and Lisa Bitel for their enthusiastic interest in and careful reading of Isabel's life story. I also offer special gratitude to Alison Weber for her support and valuable insights, Rosario Ramos Pérez at the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, Barbara Guth at the University of New Mexico Press, and my copy editor, Sheila Berg. Page 3 Introduction Self-Representation and the Metanarrative One common theme that has linked most women writers of Spain throughout their recorded literary history is the inclusion in their works of commentaries about the act of writing, specifically as women. Beginning with Hispano-Arabic women poets from before the eleventh century and continuing to the contemporary writings of Gloria Fuertes, the majority of women authors write about their literary activity. The appearance of the explicit author and the discussion of texts written by women created a built-in history, either knowingly feminist or at least gender-conscious, of their writings. The humble apologies, persuasive self-defenses, and expression of the need to explain the mainspring of women's self-representation appear in the prologues, introductions, and dedications as well as in the body of the works, including poetry, theater, prose, legal and religious documents, letters, autobiographies, biographies, and diaries. Later Spanish women writers have also identified with their literary foremothers, as they also encouraged women to write. Isabel de Jesús' autobiography, Tesoro del Carmelo, escondido en el campo de la iglesia, hallado, y descubierto . (Treasure of Mount Carmel, Hidden in the Church, Found and Discovered . .), published in 1685, exemplifies the Spanish women writers' literary tradition. 1 I selected Isabel's work not only because of her captivating and graphic narrative, but more importantly because her autobiography displays features not seen in any other Golden Age text. In particular, her metanarrative displays an obsession with the act of writing. Unlike works by other women who also wrote about committing their ideas to paper, Isabel's life narrative engages nausea and the Devil in its discussion of literary activity. Studies have been published in recent years on the role of food and fasting in convent life. Isabel's nausea is not exclusively related to food issues, however, or the ascetic practices of fasting as seen in the tradition Page 4 of "holy anorexia and bulimia" in religious women. Isabel presents her nausea as a natural reaction to the Devil's disgusting attempts to prevent her from writing the word of God. Whenever she puts pen to paper, the Devil appears to dissuade her. If his efforts fail, he begins to torture her so as to physically prevent the act of writing. Isabel is repulsed by his methods and becomes ill: "Me senté a escrivir, . se inquietava el estómago, y provocava a bómito" (648) (I sat down to write, . my stomach became upset and caused me to vomit), ''porque delante de mi se ponia este enemigo a hazer muchas porquerías, que olían tan mal, que me hazía bolver la comida" (492) (because the enemy appeared before me doing many disgusting things, which smelled so bad that it made me vomit). Isabel creatively shows the expected humble resistance to claiming a voice in a patriarchal society by getting sick when she has to write. Isabel justifies her lack of desire to write by describing the torments used by the Devil to prevent her from recording the word of God. The intense agony and affliction she has to endure to continue writing demonstrates her Christ-like martyrdom. There is, however, a real sincerity in her distress related to the written word. Isabel expresses a resistance to recording her life, thoughts, beliefs, and activities for fear of the responses her work might provoke. Her life story reveals a constant underlying anxiety created by the knowledge that the notebooks would be examined and then judged by Church officials. The terror associated with the scrutiny of her writings and the lack of control she possessed over her own work are a major motivation for the voicing of an "antiwriting" sentiment in the text. Just as Isabel's resistance to putting pen to paper continued until she died, the Devil did not stop his tactics to prevent the blessed act of writing the word of God. Isabel uses the Devil to prove the holiness of her writings. If the Devil consistently tries to impede this activity, then logically her literary work must derive from God and serve Him. The enemy of God carries out the torture and temptation that measure Isabel's saintly suffering as well as her superiority to the evil spirits.