Epistemología, literatura y género: sobre un poema de Mª de San José Salazar

El presente artículo busca sacar a la luz los problemas epistemológicos que entraña, desde una perspectiva de género, la selección del canon literario en que se ha tomado por «natural» la exclusión de numerosos textos femeninos. Partiendo de un concepto sociocultural de «práctica» y distinguiendo entre la científica y laliteraria, se analizan dos poemas (uno de María de San José Salazar y otro de Lope de Vega) en cuya semejanza formal parece no haberse reparado. La indiferencia por el texto femenino, frente a la abrumadora tinta vertida sobre el masculino, puede encontrarse en dos grupos de razones: extradiscursivos (práctica científica) e intradiscursivos (práctica literaria). La principal conclusión apunta a que el poema de Lope de Vega es individualista, universalizante y activo, mientras que el de Salazar ofrece una correlación de categorías que permiten entender la riqueza de una propuesta vital inclusiva, en discordancia con lo que se espera de un texto desde la práctica científica históricamente patriarcal.

Análisis iconográfico de sellos postales alegóricos a la Beata Venezolana “Madre María de San José”.

Las fuentes históricas no escritas, tales como las iconográficas, brindan la oportunidad de analizar hechos y personajes de relevancia en el transcurso del tiempo. En este sentido, la filatelia o afición por coleccionar y estudiar los sellos postales, constituye una ventana abierta para el análisis y enriquecimiento del conocimiento sobre diversos aspectos de las actividades humanas, entre ellas, los cuidados de la salud en el contexto de la Enfermería. Por lo tanto, el objetivo del presente estudio se fundamentó en describir mediante un análisis iconográfico, la presencia de valores relacionados con el cuidado de Enfermería, representados gráficamente en sellos postales alegóricos a la Beata “Madre María de San José”. La metodología empleada fue iconográfica-iconológica, teniendo como referente a Erwin Panofsky. La unidad de análisis estuvo constituida por las ilustraciones de tres sellos postales. En el análisis, los elementos simbólicos y códigos presentes en las ilustraciones, fueron fáciles de interpretar en el contexto sociohistórico. También, se evidencia la presencia de cuidados y valores relacionados con la enfermería.

The (Almost) Silenced Epistolary Pen of María de San José

Teresa de Ávila had hoped that María de San José (1548–1603) would succeed her as foundress of convents and head of the Carmelite reform. However, María clashed with the Discalced hierarchy when the Provincial, Nicolás Doria, sought to modify the Constitutions of the order. She and Ana de Jesús appealed to the Pope in what came to be known as the “nuns’ revolt”, but, in the end, Doria won out. María was imprisoned and eventually exiled to a remote convent, where she soon died. María had received an excellent education as a child at the palace of Duchess Luisa de la Cerda, and she wrote many well-reasoned, legalistic letters defending her position.

Drama in Seville

At the urging of Gracián, Teresa de Ávila (de Jesús) founded a convent in Seville, naming María de San José its prioress. In so doing, Teresa disobeyed the orders of the Carmelite General, Juan Bautista Rubeo, who had only given her permission to found in Castile. Enraged, Rubeo convened a chapter in Piacenza at which Teresa was ordered to remain in one convent in Castile and make no further foundations. Felipe [Filippo] Sega, the papal Nuncio, took the side of those who opposed the Discalced expansion into Andalusia. In the meantime, María had to cope with a disgruntled nun who denounced her to the Inquisition, and an overzealous confessor named Garciálvarez, who subjected nuns to excessive penitential practices.

Introduction

Women Religious and Epistolary Exchange in the Carmelite Reform tells the story of the Carmelite expansion beyond the death of Teresa de Jesús, showing how three of her most dynamic disciples, María de San José, Ana de Jesús, and Ana de San Bartolomé, struggled to continue her mission in Portugal, France, and the Low Countries. Like Teresa, these women were prolific letter writers. Catalina de Cristo, a Carmelite nun who never left Spain, also produced a corpus of letters that reveals the distress of those who anxiously waited for news of their sisters abroad. In devoting themselves so assiduously to letter-writing, these women, as Joan Ferrante has shown, were continuing a long monastic tradition that had begun in the Middle Ages.

On to Portugal: The Lisbon Carmel, 1584–1603

In December 1584, María de San José arrived in Lisbon, where she founded São Alberto, the first female Discalced Carmelite convent in Portugal. Soon afterward, São Alberto housed a group of Clarissas [Poor Clares], who had escaped the Low Countries. Brétigny was anxious to found a Discalced convent in Paris, with María as its prioress, but the moment was not propitious. María was a gentle and efficient prioress, yet she was a strict disciplinarian, and nuns were often whipped as a form of mortification. Throughout Europe and the Spanish colonies, self-mortification was common, as it was considered a means of helping individuals share Christ’s suffering and thereby bringing them closer to God.

Battles: The English, The Dutch, and the Discalced Hierarchy

During the Anglo-Dutch War, María’s convent was constantly in danger of attack. In 1588, Ángelo de San Paulo, a Discalced Carmelite friar who was aboard one of the ships of the Spanish Armada, wrote to María with an account of the Spanish defeat. María was also dealing with the hostility of Doria, who believed that prioresses wielded too much power, and took steps to alter the Constitutions. María fought back with a barrage of letters. The dispute culminated in the “nuns’ revolt”, an appeal to Pope Sixtus V by María and Ana de Jesús to preserve the Order’s Constitutions. In the end, María de San José was deprived of voice and vote and placed under house arrest.