Research Abstract

‘Enlightened’ Evangelization: A Discussion of Mexican Colonial Education within Eclesiastical New Spain in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Loa for the Divine Narcissus
Like

The goal of this project is to see how policy manifests itself in a literary work. Using Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Loa for the Divine Narcissus as a case study, I will explore the intricate relationship between Christian theology and colonial legislation. Also, I will consider the  theological dissidence within the Catholic Church, which shaped the expression of legal doctrine and criticism throughout the piece. 

Sor Juana witnessed the construction of the colonial rationale in New Spain during the seventeenth century. However, we have rarely consulted her work when it comes to examining the educational dynamic, which played a major role in perpetuating and developing the colonial rationale. Loa for the Divine Narcissus provides us with valuable insights into the beliefs and practices of Spanish colonizers and offers us a view of society through an allegorical lens. 

In this work, Sor Juana demonstrates that evangelization is education. Employing influences from the Enlightenment, despite not supporting the intellectual movement itself due to the ongoing battle between the Catholic Church and humanism, she advocates for the ideal of educational evangelization. This process utilizes education as a vessel for colonization to suppress indigenous communities and their legacy. This educational mentality is thereby insidious in that it permits the propagation and inheritance of colonial standards.

Throughout this project, I will perform a complete analysis of Loa for the Divine Narcissus with a special focus on its historical significance. The principal methodology will take the form of literary analysis through close reading. Close reading will occur in two parts: a thematic evaluation using theories such as nationalism, neoliberalism, syncretism, neoplatonism, and the execution of the New Spanish Baroque as well as a historical examination in order to contextualize Sor Juana’s belief system. The theories will guide us in the analysis, as I will discuss the traits of the characters of the work, i.e. how the theories are presented through the characters of the play. Additionally, I will offer an interpretation of Sor Juana’s perspective regarding the educational process via evangelization through an assessment of plot development. Although these theories did not exist at the time in which Sor Juana was writing, I will use them to conceptualize imperialism and cultural colonization during my review of New Spain in the 17th century and the years that followed. In the historical examination, I will review the works of Sor Juana’s contemporaries in the Church, the systematic connection between the Church and Spanish Crown, social structures in the colony, and accounts of the missions in theory and practice. In addition, using catechisms, indigenous accounts, and second hand historical accounts, I will compare eclesiastical actions and decisions during Spanish colonization with Sor Juana’s perspectives.

By focusing on one particular text, we gain a historical snapshot of the time period and the current educational philosophy that the Church perpetuated. It provides a piece of the puzzle that can explain the diversity in educational beliefs and strategies concerning Spanish imperialism and colonization. 

There are two analytical approaches when reading a text: intrinsic and extrinsic. In this project, I will take an extrinsic approach. Analyzing the historical and social circumstances of Loa for the Divine Narcissus is paramount in deciphering her logic of education through evangelization. Thus, I will analyze her play in relation to her experiences, as her position as a Creole Catholic nun allows us to observe her rhetorical strategies and views while writing. Seeing that I am placing Sor Juana within the 17th century Catholic institution, it is impossible to make any conclusions about the text without considering historical and social context. While I will analyze the work as a whole, I am less interested in the syntactical and didactical development of the piece and more so about the reasons behind the values contained in the text. The concept that a text can inform us about a historical situation and introduce ideas not explicitly mentioned is at the very heart of this dissertation. Although an intrinsic approach places more emphasis on the importance of a text rather than the context, an extrinsic approach assumes a more comprehensive outlook in that only the text in context has meaning. Because my goal is to put Sor Juana in the religious canon of the time period, an extrinsic approach is necessary when comparing her ideas with those of the Church. She writes as a woman, a Catholic nun, and a subject of the Crown. Without considering these factors, Loa for the Divine Narcissus bears no ethos nor rationale. 

Albeit rooted in a specific era, this research project has significance beyond the period in which the primary text itself was written. I firmly believe that we should see a text as living and dynamic. Sor Juana’s words are simply not another relic of Mexico’s colonial past. Rather, her words impart a legacy that has impacted the education of indigenous people today. In the field of education, we must remember that teaching is a form of social interaction that can serve as a method of oppression. 

Notably, education often has an agenda. For Sor Juana, evangelization taught indigenous people how to experience the world in a strictly Catholic way. Evangelization was religious conversion, an attempt to rid Mexico of indigenous faiths and cultures. With this project, I would like to present a more systemic attitude of how we should view education in post-colonial states. In order to truly understand the issues we have today regarding the power dynamic in academic and cultural settings, we need to delve deeper into the problematic origins themselves. We must not be afraid to question the structures that caused the indigenous subjugation ingrained in our global society today. Even though it is too late for prevention, we still have the opportunity to instate educational policies that preserve indigenous cultures by uplifting native voices and becoming more aware of the socio-political mentality that colonialism created. 

Please sign in

If you are a registered user on Laidlaw Scholars Network, please sign in