Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Chronology
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(found via handouts and
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sorjuana/ )
1651-Born November 12, Juana Ramirez de Asbaje to mother Isabel
Ramirez in San Miguel Nepantla
1654- Learns to read from the "amiga" of Amecameca
1658- composes a loa to the Holy Sacrament
1660- Goes to live with her grandfather in Mexico City
1662- Enters the court of the Viceroy's wife, the Marquise of Mancera
1664- Becomes personal servant to Marquise of Mancera
1667 or 1669- Enters the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites of St.
Joseph on August 14. Leaves the convent after three months, on
November 18.
1669- Enters the Convent of the Order of St. Jerome on February 21,
and remains there until her death. Writes her will. Her mother gives her
a slave, Juana de San José, as a servant
1680- Writes Neptuno alegórico in honor of the viceroy, Tomás de la
Cerda, Marquise of La Laguna. Probable date of the composition of
"Hombres necios que acusáis"...
1681- Probable date of the composition of the "Autodefensa espiritual,"
also known as the "Carta de Monterrey."
1683- Los empeños de una casa (The Trials of a Noble House), a play
1684- Sor Juana sells her slave to her sister, Josefa María
1688- Isabel Ramírez, Sor Juana's mother, dies.
1689- Performance of Amor es más laberinto (Love the Greater
Labyrinth), at the palace. Inundación castálida is published in Madrid
1690- The Carta atenagórica (The Athenagoric Letter), published by
the bishop of Puebla, Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz. Sor Juana
criticizes the1650 sermon of the famous Portuguese Jesuit, Antonio
de Vieyra. El divino Narciso (The Divine Narcisus), a sacramental play,
is published in Mexico. Crisis of 1690, and breaks with her confessor,
Núñez de Miranda.
1691- Composes Respuesta a sor Filotea, three months after the
publication of Carta atenagórica. The Respuesta is published
posthumously. Published in Puebla, the villancicos (carols) to Santa
Catarina de Alejandría, composed for the cathedral of Antequera
(Oaxaca)
1692- First edition of Vol. II of her works (Seville), Segundo volumen. It
includes: El sueño, published for the first time; El cetro de José, El
mártir del Sacramento, San Hermenegildo, and El Divino Narciso; Los
empeños de una casa and Amor es más laberinto; Crisis sobre un
sermón (Carta atenagórica)
† 1692-1694- Sor Juana confesses with Pedro de Arellano y Sosa, a
spiritual son of the Jesuit, Antonio Núñez de Miranda.
† 1693- Pens Petición que en forma causídica presenta al Tribunal
DivinoŠ" without date, but her biographer, Diego Calleja, dates it in
1693.
† 1694- Writes Profesión of the faith signed with her own blood (La
protesta que rubrica con su sangre), on March 5. Sor Juana returns to
the spiritual guidance of Núñez de Miranda until his death two months
before her own. Docta explicación del MisterioŠ
† 1695- Sor Juana dies on April 17.
Critique
(found on JSTOR)
† Aside from the obvious Don Manuel Fernandez de la Santa Cruz the
Bishop of Puebla
† In 1931,Ezequiel Chavez published his Ensayo de Piscologia de Sor
Juana Ines de la Cruz, in which he pictures her as an angelic spirit who
was tied, though not anchored, to a human body that existed in the
17th century.
† In 1940, Ermile Abreu Gomez published his long, interpretative
prologue to the Poesias do Juana Ines do la Cruz. The thesis of the
prologue resembles and contradicts the essay of Chavez.
† He claimed that Sor Juana was far from an angelic spirit.
† Gomez’s paints Sor Juana as a woman who was wise to the ways of
the world and could them to further her own ends, which were
intellectual.
† The result: Sor Juana acted with tongue in cheek to deceive the
leaders of her society.
† On the other hand, Gomez’s prologue holds Sor Juana adherent of
Cartesian philosophy, this restores her to Chavez’s vision of her.
Other Info
List of works can be found on http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sorjuana/
Multiple books located in UWG library on Sor Juana