The woman saint in the Spanish Golden Age drama

"The Woman Saint in Spanish Golden Age Drama examines the various ways in which male and female dramatists present the figure of the ascetic woman in seventeenth-century Spanish theater. Playwrights depict her not only as the solitary initiate of a rite of passage struggling to purify herself to approach spiritual perfection; they also focus on the clash between ascetic practice and the desires of family, suitors, and patriarchal society. She may appear as both a forbidden fruit and Christ figure that is ultimately persecuted, scapegoated, and executed by a fearful society. Some writers present her as a representative of the symbolic order: invested with sacred powers and ultimate authority, she rebukes transgressors and negotiates their return to God's grace and lawful society."--Jacket.