From Calderón's autos to Sor Juana's Divino Narciso (1690)

Autos sacramentales (sacramental one-act plays) were first developed as purely theological plays performed for the Corpus Christi festival in late May or early June. In time, this term was used to describe any play performed at the festival, even if it did not have a sacramental or even religious theme (a trend introduced by Calderón when autos became his primary genre after 1651). As we discussed, the Spanish 17th century theatre differed from those of Italy, England and France in that religious theatre continued right along the development of secular professional theatre, and in the late 17th century even pre-dominated for a time. The autos combined elements of medieval morality and mystery plays and could include human, supernatural or allegorical characters. They were produced at the festivals by professional companies and then tour local villages and even perform in the public corrales. Over the course of the 17th century, the staging conventions for autos developed from carros (wagons) to larger platform stages. By the 1690s, the auto stage was 36 feet deep and nearly 50 feet high, while the carros (which still served as architectural elements) could be 36 feet high.

Since 1623, Calderón had written plays for court as well as for the corrales. However, over the course of the late 1630s, his attentions were pulled away from the corrales. In 1635, the year he wrote La vida es sueño (1635), Lope de Vega died, and Calderón was named director of the court theatre. In 1640, however, both court and corral theatres were closed due to wars in Catalonia and Portugal, and Calderón joined the army. In 1651, he returned to religion and was ordained a priest. He returned to writing plays, but not for the public stage. Only autos for the Corpus Christi festivals. In 1663, he was reappointed court poet, and served there as director of theatre, and the sole licensed author of autos in Madrid until his death in 1681.

Sor Juana wrote El Divino Narciso in 1687 as part of a competition for a festival in Madrid to see who would write autos after the death of Calderón. So the final dialogue, in which Zeal and Religion argue about how this play would be received in Madrid speaks directly to that context. Unfortunately, the festival was canceled on account of the death of the Queen. Sor Juana published the play in 1690 in New Spain (present-day Mexico) but there is no record of it having been performed during her lifetime.

In reading this short play (Longman 620-629), think about what Sor Juana was doing in writing such a play, and how it might have been received in Madrid or even in New Spain. How does she mix the genre of sacramental play with that of "conquest literature"? How does she reconcile the conversion and conquest of Mexico? What is her attitude towards the indigenous population? Are the facts that she is a female playwright (the first we've read in this world theatre sequence), a nun and a criolla (a person of European descent born in colonial Mexico) significant to our understanding of the play? Why does she represent Aztec ritual practices (which the native population themselves were forbidden to perform in the 17th century)?