Call for Chapter Proposals: Confined Women

Chapter proposals are invited for a forthcoming book titled Confined Women: Emparedadas, Malcasadas and the Walls of Female Space in Inquisitorial Spain. The book will focus on the mechanisms of control that women faced in early modern Spain and the different ways that they were venerated through literary, historical, and visual texts. Chapters of 6,000–8,000 words will explore questions such as: how did literary and historical figures become closed-in and monitored?  How did contemporary women interact with ideals of the “virtuous woman” or the “perfect wife”? Conversely, how were figures punished and labelled as subversive and of need of reform? Who were figures that interrupted narratives of virtuosity and of contemporary gendered morality usually determined by men (Juan Luis Vives, Fray Luis de León, Fray Martín de Talavera and Martín Carillo)? Likewise, we look to unveil narratives of voluntary immurement, typically carried out by excessively devout religious women or beatas, but also viewed as a means of escape from an overzealous patriarchy. Some of the themes and authors touched upon in the volume include Cervantes’s portrayal of jealous men and the women they control by means of enclosure, María de Zayas y Sotomayor’s condemnation of an overzealous patriarchy and the popularity and repetition of oral poems of immurement such as La oración de la emparedada.

Contributors are invited to submit a 250 to 300-word chapter proposal for consideration to the editors, Emily Colbert Cairns (emily.colbertcairns@salve.edu) and Brian M. Phillips (brian.m.phillips@jsums.edu). The deadline to receive the proposal is 10 December 2016. Authors of chapter proposals will be notified no later than 10 January 2017, and if accepted a first version of the chapter should be submitted by late April to mid-May of 2017.