Abstract

Abstract This essay illuminates the place of seventeenth-century Mexican nun Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz in the history and theory of rhetoric. I examine rhetorics of silence and interruption in La respuesta, Sor Juana's most well-known prose piece and an autobiographical polemic that preceded her actual silence in the face of disapproving Church authorities. By insisting that silence is something to listen for and demanding that rhetors underscore their use of silence by "naming" it, Sor Juana theorizes about silence as a persuasive entity and provides an early instance of a nondominant, protofeminist, New World rhetoric.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2006-01-01
DOI
10.1207/s15327981rr2501_1
Open Access
Closed

Citation Context

Cites in this index (1)

  1. College English
Also cites 3 works outside this index ↓
  1. Franco, Jean. Plotting Women: Gender and Representation in Mexico. New York: Columbia UP, 1989.
  2. Lanham, Richard A. A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. 2nd ed. Berkeley: U of California P, 1991.
  3. Scott, Nina M. "`Ifyou are not pleased to favor me, put me out of your mind .': Gender and Authority in Sor J…
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