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La marginalidad puesta en el centro: algunas reflexiones acerca de las ‘trampas’ de la canonización de Sor Juana
(pp. 134-150; DOI: 10.23692/iMex.15.10)

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Prof. Dr. Kurt Hahn

Kurt Hahn studied Romance and German Philology in Munich and Lyon. In 2007, he finished his dissertation on ethical implications in the poetry of René Char, Paul Celan and Octavio Paz at the University of Munich (published in 2008 under the title Ethopoetik des Elementaren – Zum Schreiben als Lebensform in der Lyrik von René Char, Paul Celan und Octavio Paz). In 2013, he presented his postdoctoral thesis at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. It treats the dynamics of transculturation in Hispano-American narrative of the 19th century and was published in 2017 under the title “Mentaler Gallizismus” und transkulturelles Erzählen: Fallstudien zu einer französischen Genealogie der hispanoamerikanischen Narrativik im 19. Jahrhundert. Having taught at the Universities of Heidelberg, Munich, Eichstätt and Würzburg, Kurt Hahn is full professor (literature and didactics) at the Institute of Romance Philology at the LMU Munich since December 2017. His publications and research interests are focused on modern and postmodern poetry, narratives of identity in Hispano-America, historical forms of transculturation, literature of the fin de siècle, the teaching of literature or the relations between literature and economy.

 

Durante los últimos decenios, la obra de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz se convirtió en el modelo por antonomasia de una escritura marginal que, desde lo periférico, pone en tela de juicio el centro del colonialismo español, de las autoridades eclesiásticas y de la ciudad letrada novohispana. Y, sin duda, la diversidad de los textos sorjuaninos resulta tanto más destacable cuanto que ellos dejan entrever, pese y frente al poder patriarcal, su alteridad significativa. Sin embargo, el presente artículo invita a discutir algunas de las perspectivas y categorías destinadas a probar tal ex-centricidad. Por este motivo, se examinan los dos ejes más sensibles del universo literario de Sor Juana, es decir, su impronta femenina y transcultural cuya interpretación no sólo suscita la cuestión de la historicidad de los criterios exegéticos, sino también demuestra cuán restringido era en realidad el margen de acción de la monja-escritora. En consecuencia, un análisis panorámico del “Romance a la duquesa de Aveiro” intenta evidenciar tanto el atrevido acto de autoafirmación, patente en la poesía de Sor Juana, como la constante presión exterior ejercida sobre ella por un mundo clasista, racista y sexista. Pues, mediante una doble táctica, los versos dedicados a una famosa aristócrata ibérica, por una parte, cumplen con todas las expectativas requeridas del panegírico en el Barroco metropolitano, mientras que, por otra, crean ambigüedades (sub)textuales que matizan el esquema tópico y relativizan o incluso socavan –en la medida de lo posible– la epistemología dominante de la literatura colonial.

In the last decades, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s work has become a prime example of marginal writing that calls into question, from the periphery, the centre of Spanish colonialism, of the ecclesiastical authorities and of the scholarly elite in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Without doubt, the diversity of the texts composed by the nun is all the more remarkable as it indicates, in the light of and against the patriarchal power, their significant alterity. Nevertheless, this article proposes to discuss some of the perspectives and categories that are supposed to prove such ex-centricity. For this purpose, we will examine two of the most fundamental issues of Sor Juana’s literary universe, i.e. its feminine and transcultural imprint whose interpretation not only raises questions about the historicity of the exegetic criteria, but also demonstrates how limited the writing nun’s room for manoeuvre actually was. Thus, a cursory analysis of the “Romance a la duquesa de Aeiro” attempts to show both the courageous act of self-assertion apparent in Sor Juana’s poetry, as well as the constant external pressure exerted upon her by a classist, racist and sexist world. By means of a dual tactic, these verses dedicated to a famous Iberian noblewoman, on the one hand, meet all essential requirements of the panegyric in the metropolitan Baroque, while, on the other hand, they create (sub)textual ambiguities that slightly alter the topical pattern and relativize or even undermine – as far as possible – the dominant epistemology of colonial literature.