Gender Studies 333I - Topic: Women/Spanish Empire

During the Spanish Empire (16th-18th centuries), witches, prostitutes, transvestite warriors, and daring noblewomen and nuns violated the social order by failing to uphold the expected qualities of the ideal good woman and/or the expected sexual morality of the time. They were criticized, punished, and even burned at the stake. Students will study contradictory discourses of good and evil and beauty and ugliness in relation to women and their place in history. We will analyze historical and literary examples of so-called 'bad' women in the Spanish Empire, such as Celestina, Marma de Padilla, Catalina de Erauso and Sor Juana Inis de la Cruz.

This course is open to Juniors and Seniors.