Kirjahaku

Catalina de Erauso (1592-1650) was a Basque noblewoman who, just before taking final vows to become a nun, escaped from the convent at San Sebastián, dressed as a man, and, in her own words, "went hither and thither, embarked, went into port, took to roving, slew, wounded, embezzled, and roamed about." Her long service fighting for the Spanish empire in Peru and Chile won her a soldier's pension and a papal dispensation to continue dressing in men's clothing. This theoretically informed study analyzes the many ways in which the "Lieutenant Nun" has been constructed, interpreted, marketed, and consumed by both the dominant and divergent cultures in Europe, Latin America, and the United States from the seventeenth century to the present. Sherry Velasco argues that the ways in which literary, theatrical, iconographic, and cinematic productions have transformed Erauso's life experience into a public spectacle show how transgender narratives expose and manipulate spectators' fears and desires. Her book thus reveals what happens when the private experience of a transgenderist is shifted to the public sphere and thereby marketed as a hybrid spectacle for the curious gaze of the general audience.

Using the one-act comedy ""El parto de Juan Rana"" (""John Frog Gives Birth"") as a point of departure, Velasco argues that the figure of the pregnant man in early modern Spanish culture was not merely comic entertainment, but also served an important role as a physical representation of the anxieties about the changing roles of men and women at the time. Men were increasingly taking over medical duties - especially surrounding childbirth - usually left to women and, as their medical knowledge increased, they became aware of bodies and behaviors - both male and female - that transgressed gender norms. The anxieties about men who acted in ways seen as increasingly womanly (from acting effeminately to participating in homosexual activity) played out in the character of pregnant Juan Rana. Then, Velasco turns to Hollywood, and asks if we might not use the lessons of Juan Rana to help explain why contemporary America is also fascinated by the idea of male pregnancy - think Arnold Scharzenegger in ""Junior"" - and our increasing anxiety over the changing face of masculinity in our own culture.

Using the one-act comedy ""El parto de Juan Rana"" (""John Frog Gives Birth"") as a point of departure, Velasco argues that the figure of the pregnant man in early modern Spanish culture was not merely comic entertainment, but also served an important role as a physical representation of the anxieties about the changing roles of men and women at the time. Men were increasingly taking over medical duties - especially surrounding childbirth - usually left to women and, as their medical knowledge increased, they became aware of bodies and behaviors - both male and female - that transgressed gender norms. The anxieties about men who acted in ways seen as increasingly womanly (from acting effeminately to participating in homosexual activity) played out in the character of pregnant Juan Rana. Then, Velasco turns to Hollywood, and asks if we might not use the lessons of Juan Rana to help explain why contemporary America is also fascinated by the idea of male pregnancy - think Arnold Scharzenegger in ""Junior"" - and our increasing anxiety over the changing face of masculinity in our own culture.

This in-depth study of female homosexuality in the Spanish Empire for the period from 1500 to 1800 presents a multitude of riveting examples that reveal widespread contemporary interest in women's intimate relations with other women. Sources include literary and historical texts featuring female homoeroticism, tracts on convent life, medical treatises, civil and Inquisitional cases, and dramas.