The Answer La Respuesta (Expanded Edition) by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Author:Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Annotations to La Respuesta / The Answer

In preparing these notes, we sought to maintain the emphasis on gender that informs both Sor Juana’s text and our edition of it. We have provided sufficient information to help students and general readers appreciate the sphere of intellectual concerns within which Sor Juana (SJ) wrote. Exhaustive treatment of her many classical, biblical, historical, and other references is beyond the scope of this work. See Abbreviations and “A Note on the Texts,” above.

Sor Filotea de la Cruz is the pseudonym of Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, the powerful and influential bishop of Puebla (1637–99). Literally, “Philo-thea” (from the Greek) means Lover-of-God; thus the whole name means Sister Lover-of-God of the Cross. Both the bishop preceding Fernández in Puebla and St. Francis de Sales, a French bishop and reformer whom Fernández greatly admired, had used the name to address nuns. Sor Juana was well aware she was answering to a male authority. On how and why the letter was written, see “The Issues at Stake” in Pt. II of the Introduction, above.

(1) l. 8 the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas: 1225–74. “The greatest figure of Scholasticism … held that faith and reason constitute two harmonious realms” (CCE). According to the Golden Legend, Thomas’s teacher, Albertus Magnus, defended the “silent” Thomas from schoolfellows who derided him (DCLL). SJ thus implicitly draws a parallel between Thomas and herself, between Albertus and the bishop (who ought therefore to defend her), and between the ignorant schoolfellows and her detractors. Such parallels between herself and illustrious figures, both male and female, appear throughout the text.

ll. 12–13 in truth… worthy of you: See note on “false humility,” par. 3, below, and “Sor Juana’s Art and Argument,” in Pt. II of the Introduction, p. 30, above.

ll. 14–16 the favor … of giving … to the press / favor, de dar a las prensas: For commentary on wordplay contained here, see “The Answer as Self-Defense” in Pt. II of Introduction, above.

l. 18 a rational being / ente de razón: From ens rationis, a Scholastic term, used here in the service of Baroque word-games. The bishop is placed in the realm often ascribed to women (the irrational), and Sor Juana in that of reason. The bishop has praised her unreasonably. Thus from the beginning, both playfully and seriously, SJ identifies herself with rational rather than supernatural religiosity.

1. 22 Quintilian: Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, c.E. c. 35–c. 95, the Roman rhetorician. SJ begins and ends this work by citing him, an indication of the profound influence on her of his Institutio oratoria [On the Education of an Orator], “a survey of education, literature, the principles of rhetoric and the life and training of the orator” (CCE). Quintilian was rediscovered in the Renaissance, and his name became synonymous with “teacher.” SJ clearly studied him and applied his rhetorical methods in structuring her arguments in the Answer (see Perelmuter Pérez).

11. 22–23 “They produce less … benefits conferred”: SJ gives the Latin phrase as Minorem spei, maiorem benefacti gloriam pereunt.

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