A Study Guide for Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's "Loa to Divine Narcissus"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's "Loa to Divine Narcissus", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Apr 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9780028671215

Book preview

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Loa to Divine Narcissus

Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz

1689

Introduction

Legendary Mexican poet and playwright Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's Loa to Divine Narcissus (1689) is an allegorical play that depicts the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico. The Spanish characters, Religion and Zeal, interrupt two Aztecs, America and Occident, during their most important ritual in celebration of the God of Seeds. Taking offense at what he interprets as pagan idolatry, Zeal demands that the Aztecs be destroyed, but Religion intervenes, hoping to educate and convert them to Catholicism. Painting the Aztecs sympathetically, Sor Juana—a nun famous for her secular writings, early feminism, and egalitarian ideals—depicts religious syncretism, whereby one religion absorbs another by adapting its modes of worship, as an alternative to the violent destruction of a culture. Religion works to convince the Aztecs that their God of Seeds is none other than the Christian God, with some success. Loa serves as an introduction to a longer work, The Divine Narcissus, in which America and Occident are further educated on the Eucharist and Catholicism. Known as the Tenth Muse and the Mexican Sphinx, Sor Juana was famous around the world in her lifetime for her intelligence and progressive views. She remains a national hero in Mexico and a figure of intense critical interest today.

A translation of Loa to Divine Narcissus by Margaret Sayers Peden was published in the Sor Juana collection Poems, Protest, and a Dream: Selected Writings (1997). A translation by Pamela Kirk Rappaport can be found in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Selected Writings (Paulist Press, 2005).

Author Biography

Sor Juana was born as Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana on November 12, 1648, in San Miguel Nepantla, New Spain (now Mexico). She was born out of wedlock, a fact that she concealed throughout her life. An extremely gifted child, she could read at the age of three. As early as age six, she wanted to disguise herself as a boy in order to attend university; women were not allowed to pursue a formal education, but Juana was determined to learn. By the age of eight she began writing poetry, and she started to learn Latin the next year. When she turned sixteen, she was sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Mexico City. They presented Juana to the court of the viceroy of New