Out of the Wings

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Valor, agravio y mujer (?), Ana Caro

Titles
English title: Valor, Outrage and Woman
Notable variations on Spanish title: Courage, Betrayal and a Woman Scorned
Keywords: morality > honour, morality > justice-revenge, identity > gender, family > marriage, ideology > honour, identity, identity > gender cross dressing
Genre and type: comedy
Pitch

The heroine, Leonor, has been jilted by her lover, Juan.  She disguises herself as a man in order to challenge him, hoping to restore her lost honour with his death. She chases him across the sea, gets caught in a love triangle (wooing her rival, Estela, as a man), and successfully manipulates everyone in her path.  Finally she deceives the man who deceived her and Juan is overjoyed to marry her.

Synopsis

This play features a woman, dressed as a man, who travels across the sea to vindicate her honour. Her onetime lover, Juan, promised marriage and fled, betraying their love and damaging ... (Read more...)

Sources

The historical event of a peace treaty between Spain and Holland, signed in 1621 and ending twelve years of fighting, figures in the plot of this play; Juan relaxes in Brussels, reliev... (Read more...)

Critical response

Most studies of Valor, agravio y mujer focus on the heroine, the cross-dressing Leonor who masquerades as a man in order to trick her ex-lover into marrying her. The play is well known ... (Read more...)

Further information

Delgado dates the play as written between 1609-1620 (1993: 28); but the historical event of the peace treaty with Holland in 1621, which figures in the play, casts doubt on these dates... (Read more...)

Editions
  • Caro Mallén de Soto, Ana. 1997. Valor, agravio y mujer. In Women’s Acts: Plays by Women Dramatists of Spain’s Golden Age, ed. Teresa Scott Soufas, pp. 163-94. Lexington, University Pre... (Read more...)

Information about the editions

The original seventeenth-century publication date is unknown.

Useful readings and websites
  • Armas, Frederick de. 1976. The Invisible Mistress: Aspects of Feminism and Fantasy in the Golden Age. Biblioteca Siglo de Oro. Charlottesville, Virginia

  • Delgado, María José. 1993. Valor, agravio y mujer y El conde Partinuplés: una edición crítica. Doctoral thesis, University of Arizona (in Spanish)

  • Foley, Luisa F. 1977. Valor, agravio y mujer, by Doña Ana Caro Mallén de Soto: Annotated Critical Edition with Introductory Critical Study. Master’s thesis, Temple University

  • Mujica, Bárbara. 2004. ‘Ana Caro: La mujer se desquita’ . In Women Writers of Early Modern Spain: Sophia's Daughters, pp. 175-92. Yale language series. New Haven, Yale University Press (in Spanish)

    Includes short excerpts of Valor, agravio y mujer.

  • Rhodes, Elizabeth. 2005. ‘Redressing Ana Caro's Valor, agravio y mujer’, Hispanic Review, 73, 3, 309-28

  • Soufas, Teresa S. 1991. ‘Ana Caro’s Re-evaluation of the Mujer varonil and her theatrics in Valor, agravio y mujer’. In The Perception of Women in Spanish Theater of the Golden Age, eds. Anita K. Stoll and Dawn L. Smith, pp. 85-106. Lewisburg, Bucknell University Press

  • Stroud, Matthew D. 1986. ‘La literatura y la mujer in el Barroco: Valor, agravio y mujer de Ana Caro’. In Actas del VIII Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas, eds. A. David Kossoff, José Amor y Vázquez, Ruth H. Kossoff et al. pp. 605-12. Madrid, Istmo (in Spanish)

  • Williamsen, Amy. 1992. ‘Rewriting in the Margins: Caro’s Valor, agravio y mujer as Challenge to Dominant Discourse’, Bulletin of the Comediantes, 44, 21-30

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Entry written by Kathleen Jeffs. Last updated on 4 October 2010.

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