The Baroque Vision of Sor Juana
The elements of Sor Juana's rhetoric in La Respuesta weave a Baroque vision through the structural forms of epistolary writing prevalent in the religious circles of her time. As she adheres to the proper etiquette of discourse presented by "Sor Filotea," Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz shapes forms of metaphor and ambiguity which challenge the ideological rigidity within the Catholic church. The Mexican Baroque, as articulated by Carlos Fuentes, "is always an art of displacement, requiring the movement of the spectator if the work of art is to be seen at all--and, perhaps even more important, if it is to see itself." Sor Juana's words manipulate and displace the engendered hierarchy that constitute the very foundations of the Church's ideological reality, as she engages in a rebuttal which seeks to incorporate her identity within the constructs of the Holy Church. In a presentation which employs the duality of the Baroque spirit by maneuvering the themes of revelation and disguise, Sor Juana forms her discourse to deconstruct the bishop's arguments while speaking within the defined boundaries of her position in the church.
Sor Juana enters the dialogue by adhering to the structural formality of Bishop Fernandez de Santa Cruz's letter, modeling her own response in a similar fashion. The bishop's admonishment is blanketed in words of praise and affection through the opening and closing statements, and Sor Juana also infuses her reply with near excessive proclamations of praise and expressed reverence. Not only does she fall in accordance with the bishop's form of presentation and style of language, but Sor Juana structures her reply so as to fulfill the expectations set forth with each of the reproaches the bishop has presented in his letter. Rather than disputing the criteria set forth, Sor Juana merely forms her reply within the same criteria. As the bishop extends his argument with examples of religious figures (Saint Teresa, Saint Paul, and Justus Lipsius among others) and references to Scripture, Sor Juana responds with a proliferation of Biblical and religious leaders upheld in the Catholic church, as well as extensive Scriptural exegesis. As for "Sor Filotea's" reproach of Sor Juana's arrogance, the nun replies with many phrases of humble expression and is careful to parallel any statements in defense of her intelligence with some denunciation of her insights.
An interesting component of the Bishop's discourse is his use of a pseudonym. He chooses to present himself as a veiled nun, electing a masked presentation than an outright declaration of his person. Sor Juana yet again responds within the bounds set by the bishop by addressing her response to the illusive Sor Filotea, though her awareness of the bishop's true identity seems evident. The Baroque elements of Sor Juana's writing arise in her ideological manipulation and ingenuity within the bishop's precepts of discourse. As she accepts the the masked presentation, she utilizes the bishop's tools of rhetoric to construct her defense and destruct the position of the bishop, as she even takes liberty to indirectly make jest at the Bishop's hypocrisy. In addressing the bishop's feminine mask, Sor Juana often addresses the pseudo-nun as "my Lady"; in fact, she begins the letter with the phrase, "Most illustrious Lady, my Lady." The use of "my Lady" is most probably a common address at the time, yet referring back to the bishop's letter, he has presented an argument against women's arrogance utilizing the example of Sarai. As the bishop states, "Sarai is interpreted as My lady ," and the i was taken from Sarai "because the i appended to the name of Sara connoted being swollen up and domineering [. . .] it was unfitting that one should be the lady of Abraham's house whose position was a subordinate one." Thus, Sor Juana introduces a plausible multiplicity of meaning in her address to Sor Filotea. Perhaps she utilized the title to point to the bishop's own arrogance in his reproach, exposing a hypocritical "swollenness" of the bishop's argument. In paragraph 3 of Sor Juana's reply, she enters a presentation of her own validity with a strategic construction of words: "It is not false humility, my Lady, but the candid truth. . ." The juxtaposition of "my Lady" (insinuating a prideful high status) with "false humility" could suggest an underlying reproach of the Bishop's mask of his high and domineering position. Sor Juana cleverly and indirectly exposes the "false humility" of the bishop's front of a subordinate nun. This maneuvering expresses the essence of the Baroque spirit, in that there is question, ambiguity, and multiplicity in Sor Juana's writing--Baroque form always escapes an outward appearance, calling for deeper layers of perspective and placing interpretation upon the reader.
Sor Juana's rhetorical play of revealing/unmasking the constructs presented by the bishop while adhering to the structure of a masked discourse does not merely touch the issues of the bishop's identity or position, but extends to the Church's construction of Religion and its differential gender expressions. She is essentially engaged in a conflict of cultural identity, where the foundations of her self-vision, which are rooted in her intellect, talent, and public voice, contrast with the Church's formulation of a Holy Sister, which falls under the strict guidelines of holy ignorance, suffering, silence, and submission. In this conflict, Sor Juana employs a Baroque style of cultural interpretation. Just as the Mexican Baroque is a unique creation of Indigenous creativity and expression within a European architectural and stylistic construct, Sor Juana integrates the expression of her identity as a woman of intelligence within the dogma set by the Church. The Baroque, "a culture of disguise and dissatisfaction, protecting the persevering religious faith of the Indian world under Christian domes," as Carlos Fuentes describes, is the essence of Sor Juana's use of the rhetorical and structural mask posed by the Church. As she disguises her dissidence from the traditional hierarchical structure, she constructs her identity while deconstructing the underlying definitions of the formulaic suffering, silent, subordinate, and ignorant women of the Church.
In her deconstruction of these concepts, she expands the spectrum of their meaning to reveal a more inclusive vision which is of greater depth and multiplicity. A central issue within the discourse of the letters is intellect; while Sor Juana takes great care in presenting a humble rhetoric, she challenges the bishop's restriction of learning to the realms of the Holy Scriptures. In a precise analysis supported by a myriad of well-thought Biblical examples, Sor Juana demonstrates the integral and relevant application of secular knowledge to Scriptural understanding. She indeed further extends the concepts of learning and intellect to the most basic levels of life, thus revealing profundity in the simple. For example, her analysis of the interplay of shapes and parallel lines of a simple forewall of her dormitory demonstrates Sor Juana's intellectual superiority--this description is a metaphor in itself contrasting the expansive shapes of her thought with the cold, fixed wall representative of the Church's thinking. Thus, she craftily debunks the bishop's notion of learning while expanding the concept to allow the integration of her personal character. In the same way, Sor Juana integrates her personal experiences of intellectual and ideological suffering within the more narrow precept of a nun's traditional suffering for others (often a relinquishment of personal desire). With extensive metaphorical comparison to Christ, Sor Juana legitimizes her struggle against the political manipulations of her superiors in the Church, whom she likens to the Pharisees. Thus, in her expansion of suffering to her personal intellectual matters through her self-comparison to Christ, Sor Juana redefines the terms of the Church's model for a holy woman while utilizing its rhetoric of Biblical example. Her arguments are of precise strategic structure, for as she presents her rebuttals, Sor Juana simultaneously displaces the Church's precepts while establishing her own. Specifically, throughout La Respuesta , Sor Juana utilizes examples of respected female leaders to unmask/deconstruct the pungent hierarchical power established by the Church and maintained by the Bishop in his arguments. In only the second paragraph, she uses the female examples of the mother of John the Baptist and Virgin Mary. Her reference to Mary as the "Mother of the Word" is a means of unmasking male dominance by showing a woman as the mother (source) of God. Her reference to Christ as the "Word" also carries duplicity in meaning, for as Mary is the source of word, Sor Juana justifies the legitimacy of women's use of words. Throughout her letter, Sor Juana presents examples and images of women, also using metaphorical comparison with male leaders (as her self-comparison to Christ), which unmask and equalize the power structure of the Church.
In her Baroque spirit of rhetorical meaning, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz moves within the ideological and rhetorical structures of discourse presented by the Church to affirm her identity within its cultural structure. Her rebuttal maneuvers the revelation of extended meaning within the Bishop's precepts while she in part disguises her redefinition of hierarchy and her assimilation of personal intellectual identity into a Church model of Holy Women. Sor Juana craftily uses language as she engages in these dualities of revelation and disguise, presenting a response to the Bishop which encompasses a deep multiplicity of meaning.
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