Power, Opposition and Enlightenment in Moratín's El sí de las niñas

When it comes to exploring women’s experience of Enlightenment in Spain, the Neo-classic theatre seems a useful place to focus attention. For not only were women involved with the theatre on every level—as consumers, actors, subjects and, increasingly, as playwrights—but the central tenet of Neo-classical thought, ‘enseñar deleitando’ meant that the theatre was one of the key methods through which Enlightenment discourse was disseminated. ¹ These key notions of women and Enlightenment come together in what is arguably the most successful example of Spanish Neo-classic theatre, Leandro Fernández de Moratín’s El sí de las niñas, a play about women’s experience of society, family, education, love and marriage, first performed in 1806. It is also a play that is very much a product of Enlightenment discourse, both exploring the position of women in relation to it and using the controlling power of discourse to bring about modifications to the behaviour and attitudes of men and women from within its boundaries which delimit what is to be considered normal and acceptable.