ABSTRACT

Writing by women in the early modern period, whether in Spain or elsewhere, has too often been ignored, dismissed, or marginalized as unworthy of inclusion in the canon. 1 This set of circumstances is especially true of works in which the author attempts to tell her life story. Critics of the autobiographical genre have almost exclusively focused on men and their great deeds, beginning with Augustine’s Confessions or, for those wedded to the modernity of the genre, to Rousseau’s Confessions. Ignored in the majority of early studies of the genre are works penned by women. Even when one or two are included, they are often grudgingly relegated to a separate category, implying that their lives were not of equal value to those of men.