Sor Jauna Inés de la Cruz by Briar Brooks

briarb2 — 2024-02-12 08:17:38 UTC

Why do you think the bishop of Pueblo chose to impersonate a fellow nun in his response to Sor Juana's writings? How does this impact the greater significance of the text, and what does it mean to you?

briarb2 — 2024-02-12 08:33:46 UTC

Considering Sor Juana’s “Reply to Sor Filotea” and Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, what similarities and differences do you notice? Specifically, what themes of authority and intellectual freedom stand out to you?

briarb2 — 2024-02-12 18:00:55 UTC

"I do not study to know more, but to ignore less."

briarb2 — 2024-02-12 18:01:08 UTC

"I would sooner undertake to justify the ways of God to men than the ways of men to God."

2024-02-12 19:11:49 UTC

To be honest, I feel as if he did it out of some sort of sadism. I think he enjoyed the prospect of impersonating another nun to put down another, and I think it was out of unadulterated spite. After all, he was the one who published the Letter than Sor Juana had wanted to stay secret, and then he literally responded to it immediately after his unfaithful publishing. I think he simultaneously wanted to save face-- as acting under a pseudonym would reduce the likelihood that he would be directly critiqued, and also get at Sor Juana directly-- by slandering her under the guide of someone she might be inclined to respect. I also think he was a coward.

2024-02-12 19:13:11 UTC

I think he was trying to protect her from how the outside world view women as the cause of troubles...especially in the case of Eve in the Bible...

2024-02-12 19:15:15 UTC

I kinda see the sense of everyone can reason intellectually despite of their gender.

2024-02-12 19:16:21 UTC

I don't know if I would characterize the Reply as a critique of patriarchy as a system -- if it is, it is a very individualistic one. Sor Juana, as Ann Delehanty pointed out, often uses a an "inclination" or predilection to learning to justify her pursuits. Additionally, though Sor Juana diagnoses the existence of systemic constraints on the basis of gender, pg 12 "defying gender, age and above all, custom," she never proposes that this system is wrong on its face or proposes a broader liberation but instead argues for her own exemption from this system. For sure in the tradition of "proto-femenism," but a critique of patriarchy would require some pretty extensive reading into of the text.