Professing her vows to learning : unveiling an ironic historiography in Sor Juana's response, 2024

Item — Call Number: MU Thesis Var

Identifier: b7931985

Scope and Contents

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The collection consists of theses written by students enrolled in the Monmouth University graduate English program. The holdings are primarily bound print documents that were submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Master of Arts or Master of Fine Arts degrees.

Students become eligible to pursue the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree if they have obtained a Master of Arts (M.A.) in English from Monmouth University and demonstrate a proficiency for creative writing through a thesis or equivalent work.

After completing their 30-credit M.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration, Monmouth’s M.F.A. students take an additional 18 credits of intensive creative writing study that includes the completion of a book-length Creative Thesis.

During the fall 2022 semester (in instances where the requisite waivers were received from consenting student authors), the Monmouth University Library, together with the University's Graduate School and Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences, began providing open access to select full-text digital versions of current theses and dissertations through links to the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global website in the Library's Online Public Access Catalog. Links to these open access digital publications can also be found in the "External Documents" section under any conforming titles that are listed among the holdings itemized in the collection inventory for this finding aid.

Dates

Creation: 2024

Creator

Varga, Emma (1998- ) (Author, Person)
Hanly, John P. (Thesis advisor, Person)
Love, Patrick (Thesis advisor, Person)
Moscaliuc, Mihaela, 1972- (Thesis advisor, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use. Access is by appointment only.

Research appointments are scheduled by the Monmouth University Library Archives Collections Manager (732-923-4526). A minimum of three days advance notice is required to arrange a research appointment for access to the collection.

Access to the collection is confined to the Monmouth University Library and is subject to patron policies approved by the Monmouth University Library.

Patrons must sign a completed Researcher Registration Form and provide appropriate identification to obtain access to the collection. Copies of these documents will be kept on file at the Monmouth University Library.

Full Extent

1 Items (print book) : 42 pages ; 8.5 x 11.0 inches (28 cm).

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

My paper examines how Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz leverages a complex form of dialectical irony to subvert her own silencing in her Response to the Most Illustrious Poetess Sor Filotea de la Cruz. Problematizing prior rhetorical scholarship on Response, which has often uncritically reinscribed the language of rescue and martyrdom, I instead call for a panhistorical ironic recovery process that recenters social circulation to mediate how we interface with women’s texts throughout the history of rhetoric. I argue that Sor Juana herself mobilized panhistorical ironic historiography to converse with the western rhetorical tradition in a way that dialectically confronts the language of history. Concurrently, I interrogate Sor Juana’s omission from the most recent edition of The Rhetorical Tradition, and what this implies about histories of rhetoric figured by metonymic tropes. Ultimately, I argue that an ironic historiography refigures our interactions with women’s texts productively and in a way that subverts historical narratives predicated on valorized figureheads.

Keywords: irony, panhistorical irony, dialectical irony, historiography, feminist rhetorics, cultural rhetorics, martyrdom.

Partial Contents

Abstract -- Introduction -- Contesting visions of Sor Juana -- Sor Juana's "dialectical" framing of her audience(s) -- Feigning modesty dialectically : ironically figuring gendered literacy -- Joking about the rhetorical tradition : an ironic historiography -- Ironic (re) configuration of 1 Corinthians 14.33 -- Toward an ironic rhetorical tradition -- Conclusion -- Works cited.