Three Faces/Phases of Male Desire: Veiled Woman, Passive Virgin, and African Devil in María de Zayas's "Tarde llega el desengaño". Issue 3 (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ruiz, Eduardo
• Is Part Of: Symposium. Volume 72:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 149
• Page End: 162
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: Africans -- Moors -- mythology -- Psyche -- "Tarde llega el desengaño" -- slavery; Literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Philology, Modern -- Periodicals; Romance literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; 809.03
• DOI: 10.1080/00397709.2018.1493263
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0039-7709

Abstract

Abstract: In Zayas's tale, three female protagonists symbolize the various forms of male desire: Lucrecia and the African slave are representations of forbidden drives, while the wife, Elena, fills a partial, orthodox drive that fails to satisfy. The result is a narrative where forbidden women manipulate male desire while representing semi-independent feminine erotic energies through the use of the historical imagery of Moors or African slaves and the mythic-folk motif of the mysterious veiled woman. Moors, Africans, and the cloaked foreign woman become significant markers to convey erotic, aesthetic, and cognitive proposals that advance a feminized perspective against a decadent patriarchy.