SOURCE: Gamboa, Yolanda. “Gender Coding in the Narratives of Maria de Zayas.” In Women, Society and Constraints: A Collection of Contemporary South African Gender Studies, edited by Jeanette Malherbe, Marc Kleijwegt, and Elize Koen, pp. 197-209. Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Gender Studies, Unisa Press, 2000.

In the following essay, Gamboa focuses on Zayas's works, recounting the strains and restrictions placed on women in the patriarchal system of early modern Spain.

Background

In this paper, I look at the constraints on women in the patriarchy of early modern Spain, as reflected in the novels of the popular woman writer of the time, Maria de Zayas. I propose that these constraints take effect thanks to the operation of certain social codes (which I call ‘discursive practices’), namely the discourse of Honour, the discourse of the Normative Woman, and the discourse of Enclosure into private spaces. I suggest that such gendercodes...