Fiesta, juego y didactismo en el contexto navideño áureo: dos autos al nacimiento de Cristo en la «Nochebuena» de Cosme Gómez de Tejada y de los Reyes

Los autos al nacimiento de Cristo han recibido, en general, menor atención que los conocidos como sus “hermanos mayores”: los autos sacramentales. A modo de contribución para subsanar esta laguna, en este artículo se va a presentar brevemente la obra Nochebuena. Autos al nacimiento del Hijo de Dios con sus loas, villancicos, bailes y sainetes para cantar al propósito, compuesta por Cosme Gómez de Tejada y de los Reyes a principios del siglo XVII, y se van a analizar, asimismo, dos de los cuatro autos que la integran. Todo ello permitirá establecer que el autor, oriundo de Toledo, inserta sus creaciones en la secular tradición teatral navideña y pastoril, pero concede una especial y particular importancia a los personajes alegóricos y al desarrollo en escena de diversos juegos, adivinanzas y enigmas con los que se persigue la doble finalidad característica del teatro áureo: docere y delectare.

Escenas de lectura en los autos sacramentales de Calderón de la Barca

Este artículo revisa los autos sacramentales escritos por Calderón de la Barca prestando atención a la inclusión de libros y lectores en su argumento, en lo que podría denominarse como “escenas de lectura”. A partir del estudio minucioso del corpus de textos, es posible afirmar que la inserción de textos leídos y volúmenes físicos no es casual, sino que responde a unas intenciones concretas por parte del autor: entender los autos como extensión de la misa, destacar el dogma católico frente a las reformas, exaltar la Eucaristía y mostrar el arrepentimiento y necesidad de redención del hombre.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Arguably the most important poet of the colonial period in Latin America, and perhaps of any time, Mexican poet and playwright Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz (b. 1648–d. 1695) has a number of claims to fame. She is arguably the most important poet of the colonial period in Latin America and among the first to be read in Europe. She is also an influential proto-feminist whose ideological vision defined generations. Her life is divided into three more or less symmetrical parts: her out-of-wedlock birth, education as a criolla, an individual of Spanish descent born in Latin America, in what is today Mexico City, and early manifestations of poetic talent; her life at the viceroyalty court, particularly her relationship with the Condesa de Paredes; and her decision to become a nun or spend her life in the convent, at which time her local and international fame challenged the male ecclesiastical hierarchy in New Spain, prompting her confessor and other authorities to silence her. Her most important works are her philosophical poem Primero sueño (First Dream, 1692), her comedia Los empeños de una casa (Pawn of a house, first performed in 1683) and Amor es más laberinto (Love is but a labyrinth, 1689), her loas or autos sacramentales—religious one-acts—including El divino Narciso (The divine Narcissus, 1689), her “Carta atenagórica” (Athenean letter, 1690) in which she debates the work of Portuguese theologian Antonio Vieira, her proto-feminist “Respuesta a Sor Filotea” (Response to Sor Filotea, published in 1700) where she responds to her confessor’s command to give up her writing, and, mostly, an assortment of sonnets and other poems, including “Hombres necios” (Stubborn men). Fluent in Latin and also active as a writer in Nahuatl, Sor Juana’s oeuvre is relatively compact: it includes poetry and theater and her autobiographical and philosophical letters. A substantial amount was published in her lifetime. After her death, there were hagiographies and, especially in the early 20th century, foundational scholarly studies. Still, she was the property of a small cadre of followers until she breached into the larger public realm and elicited enormous critical attention after Octavio Paz, Mexico’s recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, released his years-in-the-making biography in 1982. Since then a slew of fresh, reinvigorated research has opened up new vistas on Sor Juana. Her correspondence with her confessor, the Bishop of Puebla, has been found, changing the established academic opinion that he obstructed her intellectual development. Correspondence with other colonial poets, a possible collaboration in a comedia, and other findings have inspired sorjuanistas in international forums. Sor Juana has also become a popular icon not only in Mexican culture but across the Hispanic world, especially among Latinos in the United States. Her image appears in portraits and on Mexico’s 200-peso bill; there are several biographies; and her story has been the subject of operas, movies, TV mini-series, novels, plays, and poetry collections; and her politics have inspired feminists around the world. This bibliography highlights the most important critical editions of her work, in Mexico and outside. It lists canonical scholarly book-length contributions. It catalogues translations into English and her impact among Chicanas in the United States. And it features creative works based on her life and politics. This bibliography isn’t exhaustive. It showcases Sor Juana’s most significant contributions and her reverberations in history. It opens with significant critical editions, moves to attributed works and other references, features important biographies, concentrates on selected studies principally in book form, acknowledges previous bibliographies, and showcases her presence in films, operas, theater, and in literary works. It concludes with a section on Sor Juana in the United States. Important sorjuanistas are identified with biographical dates and relevant contextual information.

El tratamiento de la mitología en las comedias religiosas de Calderón

ResumenEl objetivo de este artículo es determinar el tratamiento de la mitología clásica en las comedias religiosas de Calderón, especialmente en Los dos amantes del cielo, El mágico prodigioso y El José de las mujeres. Se atiende sobre todo a los debates que se establecen en ellas sobre la existencia de los dioses paganos, en los que el defensor de estas divinidades suele ser el Demonio. El rechazo de la mitología clásica que se aprecia en las comedias religiosas de Calderón contrasta con su empleo en el teatro cortesano y en los autos sacramentales.