María de Zayas

Her stories frequently depict the social challenges faced by women in 17th-century Spain.

• Birthplace — Madrid, Spain • Born — before 12 September 1590 • Period — Spanish Golden Age • Movement — Baroque • Genre — Literary Feminism; Women's Writing; Novellas • Illustration — Coat of arms of the old Castilian noble family de Zayas.

Born in Madrid, de Zayas was the daughter of infantry captain Fernando de Zayas y Sotomayor and María Catalina de Barrasa. Her baptism was known to have taken place in the church of San Sebastian on 12 September 1590, and given the fact that most of Spain's well-to-do families baptized their infants days after birth, it may be deduced that de Zayas was born days before this date. Little is known with any certainty about her life. We do not know whether she was single or married or whether she spent part of her life in Naples or not. In 1637, de Zayas published her first collection of novellas, Novelas amorosas y ejemplares (The Enchantments of Love) in Zaragoza, and ten years later, her second collection, Desengaños amorosos (The Disenchantments of Love), was published. De Zayas also wrote a play, La traicion en la amistad, (Friendship Betrayed) as well as poetry. The author enjoyed the respect and admiration of some of the best male writers of her day. Among her many admirers were Lope de Vega, who dedicated some of his poetry to her, and Alonso de Castillo Solórzano, who named her the "Sibila de Madrid" (Sibyl of Madrid). Despite the enduring popularity of her works during the 17th and 18th centuries, the 19th century saw a decline in the popularity of her work with some critics deeming it to be vulgar. Her novellas faded into relative obscurity until they were 'rediscovered' in the late 20th century. After the publication of her last collection of novellas in 1647, she disappears from the records and it is not known for sure when she died. Various death certificates bearing the name María de Zayas have been found. In the introduction to a recent publication of La traición en la amistad Alberto Rodríguez de Ramos makes a convincing case that the María de Zayas whose death was recorded in 1661 is the author of the play and the novellas. If this is true, the author lived in Valladolid between 1631 and 1633 and was married to Juan de Valdés. This identification strengthens the links with convent of the Concepción Jerónima as well as Inés de Casamayor and the son of the Duke of Híjar, to whom the Desengaños amorosos are dedicated. It also implies that Zayas was employed by Margareta de Ulloa, the marquesa de Malagón, before her affiliation with the Duchess of Lemos. Rodríguez likewise sheds more light on the relationship between Zayas and Juan Pérez de Montalbán, whose fathers knew each other, and shows that the author had a sister called Isabel. The only physical description of de Zayas, which is likely made in jest, comes from Francesc Fontanella in his Vejámenes: • Catalan — English • Doña María de Sayas viu ab cara varonil, que a bé que ‘sayas’ tenía, bigotes filava altius. Semblava an algun cavaller, mes jas’ vindrà a descubrir que una espasa mal se amaga baix las ‘sayas’ femenils. En la dècima tercera fou glosadora infeliz, que mala tercera té quant lo pris vol acquirir. per premiar sos bons desitgs del sèrcol de un guardainfant tindrà corona gentil! — Madame Maria de Zayas She lived with a manly face, what great skirt she had, mustaches spinning high. She resembled a gentleman, But, I have just come to discover that she poorly hides a sword, underneath the feminine skirts. In the third décima she was an unhappy commentator for she has such a bad third how quickly she wants to get in order to award her good desires of a farthingale's? shall have a heathen crown.

María de Zayas's principal works are her Novelas amorosas y ejemplares (Amorous and Exemplary Novels), published in 1637, and Desengaños amorosos (Disenchantments of Love), published in 1647. They are sometimes known as the Spanish Decameron because they followed a structure used by Giovanni Boccaccio. The collection consists of a number of stories or novelas (novelle in Italian) framed by one overarching one. Other examples of such collections are Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Marguerite de Navarre's L'Heptémaron. Further influential novella writers from the period were Matteo Bandello and Masuccio Salernitano, some of whose stories Zayas adapted. In Spain Miguel de Cervantes published his Novelas ejemplares (Exemplary Stories in the English translation) in 1613, in which he dispensed with the frame narrative. Zayas's contemporaries Alonso Castillo Solórzano and Juan Pérez de Montalbán also wrote novellas. The genre allowed Zayas to tell a variety of stories, developing strong characters, and providing a showcase for her range. The frame narrative of both collections revolves around Lisis, who has invited a group of her friends to her home to help her recover from an illness. In an attempt to lift her spirits, each of her friends narrates a story about a particular amorous experience. Two stories are narrated per night for a total of five nights. While the first book includes some episodes of violence and deception, it also includes more humorous stories, usually told by male narrators. The second collection is entirely female-narrated and is much darker in tone and focuses on the abuse of women, many of whom die at the hands of their husbands or male relatives. The female characters in both books are well developed, and their experience allows them to eloquently denounce their inferior role in society: "Why vain legislators of the world, do you tie our hands so that we cannot take vengeance? Because of your mistaken ideas about us, you render us powerless and deny us access to pen and sword. Isn’t our soul the same as a man’s soul?.... [Later the husband listens her laments and approaches Laura] moving closer to her and incesed in an infernal rage, (Diego) began to beat her with his hands, so much so that the white pearls of her teeth, bathed in the blood shed by his angry hand, quickly took on the form of red coral" (tran. H. Patsy Boyer, The Enchantments of Love)

• Frederick A. de Armas, The Invisible Mistress: Aspects of Feminism and Fantasy in the Golden Age (Charlottesville: Biblioteca Siglo de Oro, 1976). • Marina S. Brownlee, The Cultural Labyrinth of María de Zayas (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000). • Sandra Foa, Feminismo y forma narrativa: Estudio del tema y las técnicas de María de Zayas y Sotomayor (Valencia: Albatros, 1979). • Margaret R. Greer, Maria de Zayas Tells Baroque Tales of Love and the Cruelty of Men (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2000) • Daniel L. Heiple, "Profeminist Reactions to Huarte's Misogyny in Lope de Vega's La prueba de los ingenios and María de Zayas's Novelas amorosas y ejemplares. Stoll, Anita K. and Dawn L. Smith, (eds). The Perception of Women in Spanish Theater of the Golden Age (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1991), 121–34. • Eavan O'Brien. Women in the Prose of Maria de Zayas. London: Tamesis, 2010. • Elizabeth J. Ordóñez, "The Woman and her Text in the Works of María de Zayas and Ana Caro," Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, 19 (1985), 3–15. • Lisa Vollendorf, Reclaiming the body: María de Zayas's early modern feminism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001) • Elizabeth Rhodes, Dressed to Kill: Death and Meaning in Zayas's Desengaños. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011. • Judith A. Whitenack and Gwyn E. Campbell, eds. Zayas and Her Sisters, 1. An Anthology of 'Novelas' by Seventeenth-Century Spanish Women. Asheville, NC: Pegasus Press, 2000. • Judith A. Whitenack and Gwyn E. Campbell, eds. Zayas and Her Sisters, 2. Essays on 'Novelas' by Seventeenth-Century Spanish Women. Binghamton, NY: Global Publications, 2000. • Amy R. Williamsen and Judith A. Whitenack, eds. Maria de Zayas: The Dynamics of Discourse (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1995).