Title: The woman saint in the Spanish Golden Age drama
Description: "The Woman Saint in Spanish Golden Age Drama examines the various ways in which male and female dramatists present the figure of the ascetic woman in seventeenth-century Spanish theater. Playwrights depict her not only as the solitary initiate of a rite of passage struggling to purify herself to approach spiritual perfection; they also focus on the clash between ascetic practice and the desires of family, suitors, and patriarchal society. She may appear as both a forbidden fruit and Christ figure that is ultimately persecuted, scapegoated, and executed by a fearful society.

Some writers present her as a representative of the symbolic order: invested with sacred powers and ultimate authority, she rebukes transgressors and negotiates their return to God's grace and lawful society."--Jacket.
Subjects: History and criticism, Saints in literature, Spanish drama, Virtue in literature, Women in literature, Spanish drama, history and criticism
Time periods: Classical period, 1500-1700