Presentation Type
Presentation
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Jannine Montauban
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Spanish
Abstract / Artist's Statement
A commonly referenced motif in Golden Age Spanish literature is the power of a woman’s gaze. For some, this female seductive power is something to be feared, and it is likened to the gaze of a basilisk, a monstrous serpent that can kill by locking eyes with its prey. One author who makes heavy use of this comparison is María de Zayas y Sotomayor (1590 - c. 1661), author of the Novelas amorosas y ejemplares and the Desengaños amorosos, two collections of short stories that bring to light the experiences of Spanish noblewomen in the 17th century. In the writing of María de Zayas, women are frequently described as basilisks to place the blame on them for generating male desire, and as a symbolic representation of the dangerous powers of women to seduce and reproduce. Since her novelas tend to place the blame on men instead of women, her basilisk references may be the residues of the dominant male discourse of the time, but Zayas also uses basilisk imagery to further her aim to show the unfairness of men toward women. The result is that male characters often describe women as basilisks to justify their efforts in seducing these women. After considering various interpretations of basilisk mythology from Biblical, Greek, and pagan sources, this work explores the textual implications of this symbolism by analyzing examples of women as basilisks in Zayas’s writing.
Category
Humanities
Presentation Video
The Bewitching Eye (1).pdf (105 kB)
Research Paper
The Bewitching Eye: Women as Basilisks in the Writing of María de Zayas
A commonly referenced motif in Golden Age Spanish literature is the power of a woman’s gaze. For some, this female seductive power is something to be feared, and it is likened to the gaze of a basilisk, a monstrous serpent that can kill by locking eyes with its prey. One author who makes heavy use of this comparison is María de Zayas y Sotomayor (1590 - c. 1661), author of the Novelas amorosas y ejemplares and the Desengaños amorosos, two collections of short stories that bring to light the experiences of Spanish noblewomen in the 17th century. In the writing of María de Zayas, women are frequently described as basilisks to place the blame on them for generating male desire, and as a symbolic representation of the dangerous powers of women to seduce and reproduce. Since her novelas tend to place the blame on men instead of women, her basilisk references may be the residues of the dominant male discourse of the time, but Zayas also uses basilisk imagery to further her aim to show the unfairness of men toward women. The result is that male characters often describe women as basilisks to justify their efforts in seducing these women. After considering various interpretations of basilisk mythology from Biblical, Greek, and pagan sources, this work explores the textual implications of this symbolism by analyzing examples of women as basilisks in Zayas’s writing.