Representations of religious women in contemporary literature

• Main Author: María del Carmen Rodríguez Fernández
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad de Alicante 2004-12-01
• Series: Feminismo/s
• Subjects: mujeres; religiosas; biografías
• Online Access: https://feminismos.ua.es/article/view/2004-n4-representations-of-religious-women-in-contemporary-literature

In the last decade of the twentieth century there existed a growing interest for revising and rewriting the biographies of women such as Hildegard Von Bingen and Teresa of Ávila whose fictionalised lives happen within the limits of convents and cloisters, but who know how to transgress and outwit the rules imposed by the patriarchal authorities. Works such as Joan Ohanneson’s Scarlet Music (1998), Josefina Molina’s En el umbral de la hoguera (1999), Michèle Roberts’ Impossible Saints (1997) or Carmel Bird’s The White Garden (1995) throw new lights on the lives of the Medieval nun and the Spanish mystic and show the importance of the spaces they have for self-realisation. Whether they step out of the convent cells in a literal or a metaphorical way, and whether this happens openly or subversively, these outstanding women know how to defy the dictates of patriarchy and make of these places a space of freedom.