Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Despite the existence of distinctive female personalities and individual interventions on behalf of women, feminism – understood as a mass movement – remained a rarity in Spain until April 14, 1931; that is, until the proclamation of the Second Republic. For feminism to triumph, two things were necessary: first, the popularization of the ideas represented by the French Revolution, and second, the Industrial Revolution. Neither of these two prerequisites existed in Spain until the Second Republic and the country remained in the grip of conservative Catholicism, without anything resembling the Industrial Revolution that was happening in the rest of Europe. María de Zayas Sotomayor (1590–1661?) is often considered as the first Spanish “feminist” and female novelist. The heroines of her works are women who, in the social sphere, are capable of gaining access to education. In the private sphere, they are framed in the picaresque, with a certain degree of sexual freedom typical of the aristocracy, which enabled the author to attack concepts deeply rooted in the Spanish mentality, such as “honor” and “virtue.” Even though María de Zayas Sotomayor was translated into a number of European languages, the Inquisition in the eighteenth century prohibited and persecuted the publication of her works, accusing them of undermining “the habits and customs of Christian morality.” The era was particularly ... log in or subscribe to read full text