Abstract

CABRERA LEMA, Esther Cristina. Representations of the Devil: Social Fears Demonstrated in Three Conventual Writings from the New Kingdom of Granada. CS [online]. 2012, n.9, pp.87-114. ISSN 2011-0324.  https://doi.org/10.18046/recs.i9.1203.

The colonial body was structured by the attitudes and behaviors modeled in stories of exemplary individuals promoted by the regimes of order of the Catholic Church. Furthermore, images of hell, punishment, and especially of the Devil allowed the Church to shape and project fears based on religious concepts into the social context. The indigenous, black slaves, and mestizos were demonized with the purpose of maintaining the social hierarchy by protecting and sheltering women of the elite class from unequal unions. The protection of these women was achieved by isolating them in convents, where women were allowed to write about their experiences. Through these texts it is possible to shed light on the role that the image of the devil played in the minds of the nuns and to analyze their appropriation, interpretation and re-presentation based on the social fears of their context.

Keywords : Devil; Conventural life; Social control; Representation; Marginal social subjects.

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