Spanish 330BW - Advanced Studies in Identities and Intersections: 'De Brujas y Lesbiana and Other "Bad Women" in the Spanish Empire'

During the Spanish Empire (16th-18th centuries), witches, prostitutes, transvestite warriors, lesbians, daring noblewomen and nuns violated the social order by failing to uphold the expected sexual morality of the "ideal woman." They were silenced, criticized, punished, and even burned at the stake. Students will study contradictory discourses of good and evil and beauty and ugliness in relation to gender in the Spanish Empire. We will analyze historical and literary texts as well as film versions of so-called "bad" women -- such as the Celestina, Elena/o de Céspedes, Catalina de Erauso and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Prereq: Two 200-level Spanish courses above SPAN-212.