No es trágico fin, sino el más felice que se pudo dar : women's interrelationships in the prose of María de Zayas y Sotomayor

Abstract

The enigmatic figure of Maria de Zayas acquired renown during her own lifetime for her two novella collections, Novelas amorosas v ejemplares and Desenganos amorosos, which were first published in 1637 and 1647, respectively, and the emergence of feminism has created a renewed critical interest in her works since the early twentieth century. However, focusing on the evidence of abusive patriarchy creates an inherent danger of sidelining women. Although courtship and marriage are undeniably prominent in the social world of Zayas’s texts, exclusive reference to these relationships cannot explain how a frame- narrative conclusion that is almost devoid of heterosexual pairings becomes ‘el mas felice que se pudo dar’. Ironically, by the end of the Desenganos amorosos, the male protagonists have been marginalised. As a study of the gynocentrism of Zayas’s works, this thesis represents a novel approach to these texts, examining an innovative, oft- neglected aspect and correcting an imbalance in previous criticism. Thus, I suggest that it is both possible and revealing to view Zayas’s twenty novellas from a gynocentric perspective. In so doing, where apposite, reference is made to the theories of Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva and Helene Cixous, among others. I pay particular attention to the frame narrative that links the novellas, as the stories’ interconnectedness with the frame is easily overiooked by scholars. For the study of the texts’ narrative levels, I apply Gerard Genette’s structuralist theory.