Literature, gender and morality in the spanish baroque period: Pedro de Jesus and his advice to «señoras y demás mujeres»

Abstract

the end of the 17th Century, moral literature aimed at the feminine population continued. No longer at its peak, it still contemplated the appearance of publications destined to the salvation of souls, essentially those of the neediest – women – who were considered more «fragile». Among them, around 1670, a minor work with a significant title appeared: «Very necessary news that all must know so that the way to heaven is smooth for them, since by not knowing and observing them, being capable, an endless number of souls have been condemned, particularly of ladies and other women». The author, Pedro de Jesus, represented the continuation of the misogynistic currents so commonplace among the moralists, preachers and confessors of that day. His message was the existence of a selective morality – specifically destined to correct feminine sins – of Judaic tradition and origins, newly impelled since the medieval era. At heart, a specific morality that the Baroque culture would attempt to preserve in its eagerness to ratify the basic values of the social system: the inequality of the social order and that between men and women.