Transgender Romance

20th Annual Cervantes Symposium of California
The University of California, Berkeley October 17-18, 2008
Cervantes and Romance

Deportment, Reading and Passing: Transgender Spotting in Cervantes's La española inglesa
Harry Vélez Quiñones (University of Puget Sound)

I gently asked the physician if she could put the chart down and look at me. After she did so, I explained much to her surprise that I was a transgender woman and that a pap smear wasn’t necessary. She laughed, and I did as well, since I had assumed that I rarely pass. The lesson is one we all can learn. Sometimes we pass and sometimes we don’t.
- Gianna E. Israel

La española inglesa is one of the least popular of the twelve short novels included in Miguel de Cervantes’s Novelas ejemplares of 1613. Its generic filiation is probably to blame for that. As Carroll B. Johnson confessed in his masterful essay of 1988: “For years I had my students read only the “realistic-novelistic” stories, because they are obviously and immediately relevant to a number of contemporary concerns (…). I had always shunned La española inglesa because of its membership in the “romance” group” (377). Indeed, early critics of this work such as Rafael Lapesa and Alban K. Forcione had long established how this text is much closer to romance than to the modern novel. Dealing with the conflicted love-affair between the valiant Ricaredo and the beautiful and resourceful Isabela the novel is set in a courtly milieu and it abounds in exotic twists and turns. As Marsha S. Collins puts it:

The protagonists’ tortuous path traces a series of adventures that, by accident or providential design, test the steadfastness of their love and religious faith, which are inseparable in La española inglesa. Fate, challenges, and remarkable coincidences —staples of romance fiction— saturate the plot of the tale. (57-8)

Piracy, abduction, duels, poisoning, disfigurement, murder, and captivity get in the way of both lovers and parents, who, predictably, live long enough to witness a miraculous happy ending. That being said, it is also the case that other more historically grounded critics such as Joseph V. Ricapito, Carroll B. Johnson, and Barbara Fuchs see in this text the very real presence of historical, economic, and cultural conflicts affecting early modern Spaniards. Yet, it would be as interesting to note the extent to which the text’s identity as romance appears to cover up something far more problematic, novelistic, and ─perhaps─ “essential”. Taking Barbara Fuchs’s use of the term “passing” back to its material origins, I propose that we read La española inglesa as a “transgender romance”. That is, I want to suggest that strategies used to create a performance of gender that conceals one’s genetic sex assignment are also at play in texts that gain by covering up their “essential” filiation. The practice as well as the politics of passing in the crossing between ethnicity, gender, and caste and how they structure this transgender romance is at the heart of what this paper aims to discuss.

Carpe Diem on Steroids

ESPAÑOL 301 -Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
(Juana de Asbaje y Ramírez; ¿1648?-1695)

Soneto CXLV - A su retrato

(Procura desmentir los elogios que a un retrato de la poetisa inscribió la verdad, que llama pasión)

Este que ves, engaño colorido,
que, del arte ostentando los primores,
con falsos silogismos de colores
es cauteloso engaño del sentido;

éste, en quien la lisonja ha pretendido 5
excusar de los años los horrores,
y venciendo del tiempo los rigores
triunfar de la vejez y del olvido,

es un vano artificio del cuidado,
es una flor al viento delicada, 10
es un resguardo inútil para el hado:
es una necia diligencia errada,

es un afán caduco y, bien mirado,
es cadáver, es polvo, es sombra, es nada.

VERSIFICACIÓN Y RIMA:
Estrofa: Soneto (catorce versos de once sílabas:
dos cuartetos [o serventesios] y dos tercetos)
Sílabas: Once en cada verso
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11
Este que ves, engaño colo-rido,
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11
que, del arte_ostentando los pri-mores,
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9-10 + 1 = 11
con falsos silogismos de co-lores
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11
es cauteloso_engaño del sentido;
Rima: Rima perfecta con el esquema ABBA ABBA CDC DCD

TRADUCCIÓN AL INGLÉS

(She tries to refute the praises inscribed on her portrait by Truth, which she calls passion.)

This, that you see, this colored treachery,
which, by displaying all the charms of art,
with those false syllogisms of its hues
deceptively subverts the sense of sight;

this, in which false praise has vainly sought
to shun the horrors of the passing years,
and conquering of time the cruelty,
to overcome age and oblivion's might,

is a vain artifice cautiously wrought,
is a fragile bloom caught by the wind,
is, to ward off fate, pure uselessness;

is a foolish effort that's gone wrong,
is a weakened zeal, and, rightly seen,
is corpse, is dust, is gloom, is nothingness.

(©Alix Ingber, 1995)

Primer ejercicio de poesía

ESPAÑOL 301

Monadas,

Mientras yo lucho contra un ingente mar de mocos ustedes tendrán la oportunidad de lucirse a sus anchas analizando y comentando textos poéticos.
Eso sí yo les voy a ayudar.
De los siguientes 6 pasos yo me encargaré de tres y ustedes llevarán a cabo los otros tres. A mí me tocan los números 2, 3 y 4.

1- Lectura atenta del texto - Vocabulario y referencias culturales esenciales para la comprensión del texto
2- Localización – Quien escribe, cuándo y bajo qué influencias culturales.
3- Determinación del tema – Asunto o argumento; Tema
4- Determinación de la estructura – métrica, rica, tipo de estrofas y/o composición.
5- Análisis de la forma partiendo del tema – Explica como la forma y el lenguaje del poema explicitan el tema: recursos poéticos usados, tropos, figuras del lenguaje, etc. y cómo éstas funcionan para hacer que el tema del texto se perciba efectivamente.
6- Conclusión – Reflexiones finales sobre el texto.

Fernando de Herrera (1534-1598)

Rojo sol

Rojo sol que con hacha luminosa
coloras el purpúreo alto cielo,
¿hallaste tal belleza en todo el suelo,
que iguale a mi serena luz dichosa?

Aura süave, blanda y amorosa 5
que nos halagas con tu fresco vuelo;
cuando el oro descubre y rico velo
mi luz, ¿trenza tocaste más hermosa?

Luna, honor de la noche, ilustre coro
de los errantes astros y fijados 10
¿consideraste tales dos estrellas?

Sol puro, aura, luna, llamas de oro
¿oísteis mis dolores nunca usados?
¿visteis luz más ingrata a mis querellas?


2- Localización – Quien escribe, cuándo y bajo qué influencias culturales.
Se trata de un soneto de Fernando de Herrera, poeta español del siglo XVI. Herrera escribe en la tradición renacentista y es, por decirlo así, heredero directo de Garcilaso de la Vega, el “príncipe de los poetas españoles”.

3- Determinación del tema – Asunto o argumento; Tema
Como gran parte de los sonetos, éste trata temas de amor. La voz poética intenta establecer un diálogo con diversos elementos de la naturaleza para así alabar a una anónima amada. Con el sol habla de la belleza de su “sol” (la amada). Con el suave viento del aura habla de la rubia trenza de los cabellos de la amada. Con la luna habla de los dos astros que adornan el rostro de la amada (sus) ojos. A los tres juntos interroga en el cuarteto final sobre el dolor que sufre el amante y sobre la ingratitud de la mujer.

4- Determinación de la estructura – métrica, rica, tipo de estrofas y/o composición.

Estrofa: Soneto (catorce versos de once sílabas: dos cuartetos [o serventesios] y dos tercetos)

Sílabas: Once en cada verso

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11
Rojo sol que con hacha lumi-nosa

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11
coloras el purpúreo_alto cielo,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11
¿hallaste tal belleza_en todo_el suelo,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + 1 = 11
que_iguale_a mi serena luz dichosa?

Rima: Rima perfecta con el esquema ABBA ABBA CDE CDE

Rojo Sol que con hacha luminosa A
coloras el purpúreo alto cielo, B
¿hallaste tal belleza en todo el suelo, B
que iguale a mi serena luz dichosa? A

Aura süave, blanda y amorosa A
que nos halagas con tu fresco vuelo; B
cuando el oro descubre y rico velo B
mi luz, ¿trenza tocaste más hermosa? A

Luna, honor de la noche, ilustre coro C
de los errantes astros y fijados D
¿consideraste tales dos estrellas? E

Sol puro, aura, luna, llamas de oro C
¿oísteis mis dolores nunca usados? D
¿visteis luz más ingrata a mis querellas? E

Image and Illusion in Early Modern Spain - Duke University

Pedro de Camprobín La muerte visitando al caballero (c.1660)

A couple of you asked me what is it that I am presenting here at Duke University today. Fair question! Here is the abstract of the paper I am delivering later today. I have also added a couple of visuals so that you can better understand what I am proposing.

The Dream of Olmedo: Trophies of Vanity in Lope, Pereda and Camprobín

Harry Vélez-Quiñones
The University of Puget Sound

«La Muerte es como una vieja cortesana que anduviera por cruces y caminos a la búsqueda de obligados compañeros de viaje…»
Memento mori

Read most often in the context of tragedy, Lope de Vega’s El caballero de Olmedo (1623) reveals itself as a different kind of fantasy when viewed through the prism of vanitas. As tragedy, it is simply the case that don Alonso’s hubris leads him to his undoing. His adamant pursuit of doña Inés in Medina, when he is but a forastero from Olmedo, sets him on a fatal course against forces that he is not able to control. Commentators have highlighted the hero’s pride and arrogance, yet seldom have readers or viewers been invited to envision don Alonso’s self-image. That is, how exactly should we visualize this small-town hidalgo? What is it that moves him to act in such a reckless fashion? What is it that he sees in himself that the play does not quite show us? Moreover, how is it that a young lady as well positioned as doña Inés should fall for a stranger such as Alonso? Surely she most see in him something extraordinary that other suitors lack. This paper aims to fill this visual void by proposing that we read El caballero de Olmedo in the context of early modern representations of the vanitas theme in painting. Antonio de Pereda’s Desengaño del mundo o Sueño del caballero (c.1650-55) and Pedro de Camprobín’s La muerte visitando al caballero (c.1660), among other works, can help us understand the particular construction of masculinity at work in Lope’s play. Don Alonso’s penchant for collecting trophies that exemplify his vanity leads him to a final acquisition, that “vieja cortesana que anduviera por cruces y caminos a la búsqueda de obligados compañeros de viaje…”

Antonio de Pereda, Desengaño del mundo o Sueño del caballero (c.1650-55)