CRITICISM

Boyer, H. Patsy. Introduction to María de Zayas: The Disenchantments of Love, translated by H. Patsy Boyle, pp. 1-26. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

Introduction to Boyle's translation of the Desengaños amorosos, with an overview of the work.

Brownlee, Marina Scordilis. “Genealogies in Crisis: María de Zayas in Seventeenth-Century Spain.” In Generation and Degeneration: Tropes of Reproduction in Literature and History from Antiquity through Early Modern Europe, edited by Valeria Finucci and Kevin Brownlee, pp. 189-208. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2001.

Studies Zayas's prose as an exposé of the corrupt gender, class, and racial politics in contemporary Spain.

Camino, Mercedes Maroto. “Spindles for Swords: The Re/Dis-covery of María de Zayas' Presence.” Hispanic Review (autumn 1994): 519-36.

Evaluation of Zayas's work in terms of its subversion of literary standards, its feminism, and its contribution to women's discourse and literary development.

Foa, Sandra M. “María de Zayas y Sotomayor: Sibyl or Madrid (1590?-1661?).” In Female Scholars: A Tradition of Learned Women before 1800, edited by J. R. Brink, pp. 54-67. Montreal: Eden Press Women's Publications, 1980.

Brief overview of Zayas's life and works.

Pecoraro, Rosalie Hernandez. “La Fuerza Del Amor or the Power of Self-Love: Zayas' Response to Cervantes' La Fuerza De La Sangre.” Hispanic Review 70, no. 1 (winter 2002): 39-57.

Contends that Zayas's short story is a direct response to Cervantes's vision of marriage and male-female relationships.

Smith, Paul Julian. “Writing Women in Golden Age Spain: Saint Teresa and María de Zayas.” MLN: Hispanic Issue 102, no. 2 (March 1987): 220-40.

Describes the works of Saint Teresa and Zayas as writers with common language and textual styles.

Sylvania, Lena E. V. Doña María de Zayas y Sotomayor: A Contribution to the Study of her Literary Works. New York: Columbia University Press, 1922, 51 p.

Collection of essays on Zayas's life and works, her feminism, and a discussion of her two novellas.

Vollendorf, Lisa. “Reading the Body Imperiled: Violence against Women in María de Zayas.” Hispania 272, no. 78 (May 1995): 272-81.

Contends that the myriad acts of violence against women in the works of Zayas use the female body as a focal point in a critique of patriarchy.

———. Introduction to Reclaiming the Body: María de Zayas's Early Modern Feminism, pp. 15-34. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Offers a reevaluation of Zayas's work in the context of twentieth-century rereadings of the Spanish canon, and characterizes her as a founding feminist in Spain.

Welles, Marcia L., and Mary S. Gossy. “María de Zayas y Sotomayor (1590?-1661?/1669?).” In Spanish Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Source Book, edited by Linda Gould Levine, Ellen Engelson Marson, and Gloria Feiman Waldman, pp. 507-19. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.

Offers a biographical sketch of Zayas's life and a summary of her works.

Williamsen, Amy R. “Lasting Laughter: Comic Challenges Posed by Zayas and Castellanos.” In Echoes and Inscriptions: Comparative Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Literatures, edited by Barbara A. Simerka and Christopher B. Weimer, pp. 46-58. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 2000.

Acknowledges that while Zayas's feminism may not conform to the modern paradigm, her work foreshadowed such authors as Rosario Castellanos, who use humor to explore myths about society's expectations of women.

Wyszynski, Matthew A. “Friendship in María de Zayas's La traición en la amistad.” Bulletin of the Comediantes 50, no. 1 (1998): 21-33.

Analyzes Zayas's play as a departure from the anthropocentric model of friendship as established by Aristotle.

Additional coverage of Zayas y Sotomayor’s life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: Literature Resource Center; Reference Guide to Short Fiction, Ed. 2; and World Literature and Its Times, Vol. 5.