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TERESA of AVILA and the RHETORIC of DECEPTION in EARLY MODERN SPAIN by Ana María Carvajal Jaramillo

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TERESA of AVILA and the RHETORIC of DECEPTION in EARLY MODERN SPAIN by Ana María Carvajal Jaramillo NEITHER DECEIVED, NOR DECEIVER: TERESA OF AVILA AND THE RHETORIC OF DECEPTION IN EARLY MODERN SPAIN by Ana María Carvajal Jaramillo A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School Languages & Cultures West Lafayette, Indiana December 2019 THE PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL STATEMENT OF COMMITTEE APPROVAL Dr. Howard Mancing, Co-Chair School of Languages and Cultures Dr. Yonsoo Kim, Co-Chair School of Languages and Cultures Dr. Silvia Mitchell Department of History Dr. Jessica Boon Department of Religious Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Approved by: Dr. Jennifer M. William 2 A mi mamá, mi papá y mi hermano, por ser raíz y alma de lo que soy y lo que hago. Y a Nena, que me trajo a esta orilla 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many thanks to my co-advisors, Howard Mancing and Yonsoo Kim, who believed in me and guided my work. A big thank you to my fantastic committee members, Silvia Mitchell and Jessica Boon, for gifting me with so much of their time and their knowledge. Your contributions have strengthened this project immensely. Thank you also to Marcia Stephenson for your continuous support, and for all you do for us in the Spanish Department and beyond. Deepest thanks to the best mentors I could have asked for: Teresianist scholars and kind friends, Alison Weber and Gillian Ahlgren. I first read your works many years ago, just as I started graduate school, and would have never imagined, in my wildest dreams, that you would take me seriously, encourage me, and offer me all kinds of help to support my research. I am forever grateful. Many thanks to my dearest friends, my family in the US: Esther, Riham, Tulin, Sandra, Minji, Sun, and Nuur. We have been through so much. I don’t know where I would be without you all. Thanks also to Lynn and Byron and to the Schumanns for making me feel that I belong here. Deep thanks to Jennifer Walsh who never gave up on me and pulled me out of the harshest times. I was really lucky to have the healing space we were able to create and nourish for all these years. I am deeply grateful to Cecilia (and Gaucho!) and Daleth for lending me a hand when I needed it the most. I will never forget your generosity. Special thanks to Joni, for always making me laugh, and to Twyla, Nancy, Janelle, Joyce, and all the staff at the School of Languages and Cultures. You were allies and friends and I will miss you. Gracias a mi familia por persistir conmigo a través de los años en este proyecto. Nos ha costado lágrimas y sudor, pero aquí estamos. Gracias por tanto amor y paciencia. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 8 TERESA’S PLACE IN THE RHETORIC OF DECEPTION OF SIXTEENTH- CENTURY SPAIN ....................................................................................................................... 19 Spiritual Visions Turned into Religious Reform ....................................................................... 22 Women and Visions: What Did She See?.................................................................................. 29 Visionary Women and Religious Deception in the Sixteenth Century...................................... 31 When Deception Comes as an Angel of Light........................................................................... 41 The Evolution of Teresa’s Rhetoric of Deception ..................................................................... 46 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 55 TERESA’S REDEFINITION OF DECEPTION ................................................ 58 Deception and Gender................................................................................................................ 60 Deception and Visions ............................................................................................................... 67 Deception as Doubt .................................................................................................................... 74 Deception as Knowledge ........................................................................................................... 80 Deception as Humility ............................................................................................................... 86 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 91 DECEIVER OR DECEIVED? ACCUSATIONS OF DECEPTION AGAINST TERESA ..................................................................................................................... 97 Alonso de la Fuente: The Wind That Runs at Night ................................................................ 100 Juan de Lorenzana: the Foundress, Not the Writer .................................................................. 115 Juan de Orellana: Although They Gravely Err, They Shall Do Miracles ................................ 123 Francisco de Pisa: Offended by Her Visions ........................................................................... 134 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 137 FRANCISCA DE LOS APÓSTOLES AND THE FAILURE OF THE RHETORIC OF DECEPTION ................................................................................................... 142 The Story of Francisca de los Apóstoles.................................................................................. 145 Deception on Trial ................................................................................................................... 156 The Case for Deception: Accusations and Defense ................................................................. 164 5 A New Deception: Francisca’s Secret ..................................................................................... 171 Francisca and Teresa: Beyond the Rhetoric of Deception ....................................................... 176 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 183 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 185 WORKS CITED ......................................................................................................................... 192 6 ABSTRACT As a woman who claimed to experienced supernatural phenomena, such as spiritual visions and raptures, Teresa of Ávila had to face accusations of deception while confronting her own doubts of being self-deceived. Both religious authorities and visionary women in sixteenth-century Spain used the idea of deception to either dictate or challenge the dominant religious discourse. Ultimately, Teresa succeed at convincing ecclesial powers of the legitimacy of her experiences, a mandatory step for her canonization. Other visionaries were not as successful, and I analyze whether Teresa’s rhetorical strategies played a role in ensuring her effective defense of the authenticity of her visions. This analysis of Teresa of Ávila as a visionary woman who felt the need to confront the problem of deception questions the usefulness of the traditional interpretation of visionary women as either deceivers or deceived. I argue that deception has traditionally functioned as a tool of sociopolitical marginalization, and that rulers of public discourse have ignored or dismissed the voices of visionary women. This work indicates the urgency of including their stories in the larger discussion on the credibility of women’s accounts of their own life experiences. 7 INTRODUCTION The first time I ever read Teresa of Ávila’s Book of Her Life, many years ago, her description of spiritual visions and raptures struck me deeply. At the time, one of my family’s closest friends had a near-death experience and was starting to grapple with having lost all memory of her more than fifty years of life, including those of her children and husband. Not only did she not recognize her loved ones, but she struggled with regaining physical mobility and the ability to talk. It also soon became evident that she was no longer the person we had known. Her life after almost dying began to revolve around supernatural experiences: visions, mediumship, prophecy, and raptures, very much in the style of Teresa’s story. For me, it became painfully evident that neither Teresa nor my friend were allowed to talk about their experiences without having to face accusations of deception and doubts of being self-deceived. Even during the moments when I felt most generous and could contemplate the very wild possibility for any of these extraordinary accounts to be true, I could only approach these stories within the framework of deception. And I was not the only one. The questions of why and how such visions could happen at all, and whether they were true or false, or the product of mental illness or emotional distress, were always too big and important to ignore. Despite the five centuries that separate them, and the significant differences in their respective social contexts, these visionary women have been forced to inhabit the dichotomy between supernatural
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