María de Zayas y Sotomayor

Benjamin Griffiths (University of Birmingham)

Ed. by Duncan Wheeler, University of Leeds
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.2.01: Spanish Literature and Culture from the Beginning to the Golden Age.
Vol. editors: Andrew M. Beresford (University of Durham), Stuart Green (University of Leeds), Juan Pablo Rodriguez (Yale University), Duncan Wheeler (University of Leeds)

Dates

Born 12 Sep 1590
Died c. 1647
Activity c. 1632-c. 1647

Places

Born in Spain
Active in Spain

Activities

Primary

Prose writer

Resources

Zayas y Sotomayor's Works

Save to Bookshelf

In both the Anglophone and Spanish-speaking academy, María de Zayas y Sotomayor ranks amongst the best-known female writers of the Spanish Golden Age. She is particularly noted for her collections of short stories, which have as their overriding theme a critique of men’s negative behaviour towards women, including physical and sexual abuse. In a book-length review of the literature, Enrique García Santo-Tomás has identified over six hundred academic studies (Santo-Tomás, 2022). This critical notoriety contrasts with her minor standing in the non-academic collective consciousness even in the Hispanic World.

We have very few biographical details about her life, and indeed only a little additional information has come to light since the early-twentieth-century work of Spanish historian

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2501 words

Citation: Griffiths, Benjamin. "María de Zayas y Sotomayor". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 March 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=15171, accessed 21 November 2024.]