Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Courtesy of...
Silly, you men-so very adept
at wrongly faulting womankind,
not seeing you're alone to blame
for faults you plant in woman's mind.
After you've won by urgent plea
the right to tarnish her good name,
you still expect her to behave--
you, that coaxed her into shame.
You batter her resistance down
and then, all righteousness, proclaim
that feminine frivolity,
not your persistence, is to blame.
When it comes to bravely posturing,
your witlessness must take the prize:
you're the child that makes a bogeyman,
and then recoils in fear and cries.
Presumptuous beyond belief,
you'd have the woman you pursue
be Thais when you're courting her,
Lucretia once she falls to you.
For plain default of common sense,
could any action be so queer
as oneself to cloud the mirror,
then complain that it's not clear?
Whether you're favored or disdained,
nothing can leave you satisfied.
You whimper if you're turned away,
you sneer if you've been gratified.
With you, no woman can hope to score;
whichever way, she's bound to lose;
spurning you, she's ungrateful--
succumbing, you call her lewd.
Your folly is always the same:
you apply a single rule
to the one you accuse of looseness
and the one you brand as cruel.
What happy mean could there be
for the woman who catches your eye,
if, unresponsive, she offends,
yet whose complaisance you decry?
Still, whether it's torment or anger--
and both ways you've yourselves to blame--
God bless the woman who won't have you,
no matter how loud you complain.
It's your persistent entreaties
that change her from timid to bold.
Having made her thereby naughty,
you would have her good as gold.
So where does the greater guilt lie
for a passion that should not be:
with the man who pleads out of baseness
or the woman debased by his plea?
Or which is more to be blamed--
though both will have cause for chagrin:
the woman who sins for money
or the man who pays money to sin?
So why are you men all so stunned
at the thought you're all guilty alike?
Either like them for what you've made them
or make of them what you can like.
If you'd give up pursuing them,
you'd discover, without a doubt,
you've a stronger case to make
against those who seek you out.
I well know what powerful arms
you wield in pressing for evil:
your arrogance is allied
with the world, the flesh, and the devil!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
En perseguirme, Mundo, que interesas?
Autor: Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
Resumen: In the poem, the narrator reproaches men for their attitude toward women. Sor Juana satirizes the relationships between men and women, joking men for declaring that women cannot be smart.
Tone: Accusatory, Passionate, Intellectual
Temas: The difference between the social roles of men and women, injustice, feminism
Powerpoint with historical information and poetic structure
Resumen: In the poem, the narrator reproaches men for their attitude toward women. Sor Juana satirizes the relationships between men and women, joking men for declaring that women cannot be smart.
Tone: Accusatory, Passionate, Intellectual
Temas: The difference between the social roles of men and women, injustice, feminism
Powerpoint with historical information and poetic structure
Lazarillo de Tormes
Tratados 1, 2, 3, 7
Autor: Anonimo
Resumen: The novel is a letter to "Vuestra Merced" (Your Honor).
In tratado 1, Lazarillo explains where he was born: River Tormes, close to Salamanca. He was born to a miller and his wife. The miller was killed in war, and Lazarillo and his mother move. The mother has a relationship with a black man (not allowed at the time) and, as she cannot afford to care for Lazarillo, sends the boy to be a guide for a blind man. The blind man is a master beggar who makes money by reciting prayers. Lazarillo tries to trick the old, unkind man, stealing from his wine jar, eating more than his share of grapes, replacing a juicy sausage with a turnip, but continuously gets caught. Lazarillo convinces the old man to jump over a rainy gutter, but he crashes into a pole and Lazarillo leaves him there, half dead.
In tratado 2, Lazarillo meets a priest who neglects to feed him; he convinces a locksmith to make him a key so that he can steal bread from a eucharist chest. When the priest begins to be suspicious, Lazarillo starts nibbling on it each night, pretending that it is a mouse. The priest falls for the trick, and then Lazarillo drills small holes in the side of the chest, pretending that the culprit is a snake. Lazarillo sleeps with the key inside his mouth so that the priest will not find it, but ironically, while Lazarillo is sleeping the key in his mouth makes a whistling sound. The priest thinks that it is a snake inside of Lazarillo, so he beats him unconscious. Lazarillo wakes up three days later and is dismissed.
In tratrado 3, Lazarillo is employed by an "escudero" (squire). The escudero holds a pretense of being wealthy, while Lazarillo ends up feeding him. The man is kind, but impoverished, and when he cannot afford to pay rent on his home, he runs away. Lazarillo is taken in by kind neighbors.
In tratado 7, Lazaro (since he's older, it's no longer Lazarillo) becomes a town crier. He is content, and marries a maid of the Archpriest. When it is suggested that the maid does "more than make the bed of the Archpriest," Lazaro accepts the denials of the Archpriest. The three are happy with the arrangement, and Lazaro does not allow anybody to speak poorly of his wife.
Temas: The poor treatment of children, social classes, religious inequality
Full summary here
Autor: Anonimo
Resumen: The novel is a letter to "Vuestra Merced" (Your Honor).
In tratado 1, Lazarillo explains where he was born: River Tormes, close to Salamanca. He was born to a miller and his wife. The miller was killed in war, and Lazarillo and his mother move. The mother has a relationship with a black man (not allowed at the time) and, as she cannot afford to care for Lazarillo, sends the boy to be a guide for a blind man. The blind man is a master beggar who makes money by reciting prayers. Lazarillo tries to trick the old, unkind man, stealing from his wine jar, eating more than his share of grapes, replacing a juicy sausage with a turnip, but continuously gets caught. Lazarillo convinces the old man to jump over a rainy gutter, but he crashes into a pole and Lazarillo leaves him there, half dead.
In tratado 2, Lazarillo meets a priest who neglects to feed him; he convinces a locksmith to make him a key so that he can steal bread from a eucharist chest. When the priest begins to be suspicious, Lazarillo starts nibbling on it each night, pretending that it is a mouse. The priest falls for the trick, and then Lazarillo drills small holes in the side of the chest, pretending that the culprit is a snake. Lazarillo sleeps with the key inside his mouth so that the priest will not find it, but ironically, while Lazarillo is sleeping the key in his mouth makes a whistling sound. The priest thinks that it is a snake inside of Lazarillo, so he beats him unconscious. Lazarillo wakes up three days later and is dismissed.
In tratrado 3, Lazarillo is employed by an "escudero" (squire). The escudero holds a pretense of being wealthy, while Lazarillo ends up feeding him. The man is kind, but impoverished, and when he cannot afford to pay rent on his home, he runs away. Lazarillo is taken in by kind neighbors.
In tratado 7, Lazaro (since he's older, it's no longer Lazarillo) becomes a town crier. He is content, and marries a maid of the Archpriest. When it is suggested that the maid does "more than make the bed of the Archpriest," Lazaro accepts the denials of the Archpriest. The three are happy with the arrangement, and Lazaro does not allow anybody to speak poorly of his wife.
Temas: The poor treatment of children, social classes, religious inequality
Full summary here
Naufragios
Author: Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca
Theme: The relationships between the shipwrecked and the Indians. At first, the Indians seem to be less than the Spaniards, and are treated as brutes and animals. But, by the end, the two groups have overcome a culture gap--differences in religion, war, food--and begin to understand each other.
Click here for more detail
Theme: The relationships between the shipwrecked and the Indians. At first, the Indians seem to be less than the Spaniards, and are treated as brutes and animals. But, by the end, the two groups have overcome a culture gap--differences in religion, war, food--and begin to understand each other.
Click here for more detail
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