Der auto sacramental im lateinamerikanischen Kolonialbarock: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Abstract

The auto sacramental, in general, represents a monological and colonizing genre, insofar as it propagandises the Catholic dogma and the mystery of the Eucharist without giving any voice to other religions. The present article focuses on the colonial plays in Latin America, whose purpose not only consists in the Christian missionary in the New World, but also serves to acquaint the Catholics with the beliefs of the indigenous people. The Creole writer Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, whose writings are located in a ‘third space’ between Europe and America, wrote her sacramental plays in the Viceroyalty of New Spain to be performed at the Court of Madrid. The following considerations are based on the thesis that the Mexican nun opens the monological Catholic discourse in favour of an epistemological pluralism in her loas of El mártir del sacramento, San Hermenegildo and El Divino Narciso. Furthermore, Sor Juana underscores her authority as Creole writer and educated woman in an exclusively male preserve.