Lesbians in Early Modern Spain

Sherry Velasco

Description

In this first in-depth study of female homosexuality in the Spanish Empire for the period from 1500 to 1800, Velasco presents a multitude of riveting examples that reveal widespread contemporary interest in women's intimate relations with other women. Her sources include literary and historical texts featuring female homoeroticism, tracts on convent life, medical treatises, civil and Inquisitional cases, and dramas. She has also uncovered a number of revealing illustrations from the period.



The women in these accounts, stories, and cases range from internationally famous transgendered celebrities to lesbian criminals, from those suspected of "special friendships" in the convent to ordinary villagers.



Velasco argues that the diverse and recurrent representations of lesbian desire provide compelling evidence of how different groups perceived intimacy between women as more than just specific sex acts. At times these narratives describe complex personal relationships and occasionally characterize these women as being of a certain "type," suggesting an early modern precursor to what would later be recognized as divergent lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identities.

Sujets

• Gender Studies
• Histoire
• Sexuality
• Spain
• History of religions
• History
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 02 mai 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9780826517524
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

S H E R R Y V E L A S C O

LESBIANS INEARLY MODERN SPAIN

Lesbians in Early Modern Spain

Lesbians in EarlyModernSpain

Sherry Velasco

Vanderbilt University Press 

©  Vanderbilt University Press Nashville, Tennessee  All rights reserved First printing 

Publication of this book has been supported by a generous subsidy from the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities.

His book is printed on acid-free paper made from % post-consumer recycled content. Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Velasco, Sherry M. (Sherry Marie), – Lesbians in early modern Spain / Sherry Velasco. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.  ---- (cloth edition : alk. paper) . Lesbians—Spain—istory—th century. . Lesbians—Spain—istory—th century. . Lesbianism—Spain—istory. I. Title. ..  .'—dc 

For Dulce and JoJo

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CONTENTS

   

Naming the Silent Sin Legal, Medical, and Religious Approaches to Lesbians in Early Modern Spain Criminal Lesbians Transgender Lesbian Celebrities Special Friendships in the Convent Lesbian Desire on Center Stage Looking Like a Lesbian

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FIGURES

e hypertrophied clitoris in Reinier Graaf ’s De mulierum Engraving based on Pacheco’s portrait of Catalina de Erauso Engraving of Teresa de Jesús and Ana de San Bartolomé Dildo shop: Frontispiece ofHe Dialogues of Luisa Sigea

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