ABSTRACT
Early modern Spanish female convent theater has remained practically ignored by drama historians; it is not until 2003 that it appears mentioned in a history of Spanish theater. According to Fernando Domenech, "although marginal compared to the great Baroque theater that was being developed outside convent walls, it is indeed a world of great originality, showing to what extent theater had an influence on even the most unexpected circles of the Golden Age". Drama composed and performed by nuns forms part of the great variety of genres that, with very diverse goals, make up the vast universe of female convent literature. It is not an isolated practice in Spain, and there are well-known examples of conventual theater in Italy and colonial Latin America. An in-depth study on the diversity of registers deployed may reveal the astonishing richness of language of this type of theater, as well as the expression of a possible female rhetoric.
