HERETICAL MIXTURES. FEMENINE AND POETIC OPPOSITION TO MATTER-SPIRIT DUALISM IN SPAIN (1531-1631). Dana Bultman. ALBATROS-HISPANÓFILA SIGLO XXI - n.º 64. ALBATROS EDICIONES, 2007• I.S.B.N. 84-7274-276-5
Paperback $35.00 (plus shipping). 230 pages.

In the 1530s, when the Inquisition's repression of religious heterodoxies was being established, Francisco de Osuna argued in favor of the importance of the human will's compatibility with a sensuality that was channeled into marriage. In that way Osuna contributed to an environment in which the authority of enigmatic figures like María de Cazalla and Francisca Hernández was recognized by learned clergymen. With rich historical detail, an extensive supporting bibliography, and translations of all Spanish citations, this study shows how early in the sixteenth century an implicit opposition to matter-spirit dualism came to be powerfully advanced in poetry by Luis de Góngora and Cristobalina Fernández de Alarcón. An analogy is drawn between heterodox religious beliefs and “heretical” culterano language, both of which challenged prevailing Counter-Reformation orthodoxy by refusing to represent the dominance of an ascetic and conventional rationalism as constituting what is most vitally human.
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