María de Zayas y Sotomayor was born in Madrid, Spain to an aristocrat family. Her father was an infantry captain, and growing up, the family frequently moved. Around 1632, in her early 40s, Zayas began to publish her poetry – love and satirical pieces and praise poems for various contemporary writers who were part of the literary circles in Madrid. She also wrote a play titled La traicion en la Amistad (Friendship Betrayed). In 1637, at the age of 47, she published her first novellas collection, Novelas Amorosas y ejemplares (Amorous and Exemplary Novels), and ten years later, she published her second collection, Desengaños Amorosos (The Disenchantments of Love). In the first volume, the characters are gathered together over five nights to help the leading character, Lisis, recover from an illness. In the second volume, the characters reunite in a three-night celebration for an upcoming wedding of Lisis. In both collections, most of the stories are told by women and deal with subjects of seductive men and abusive husbands. Some of the characters suffer torture, deprivation, and death from violent spouses and male relatives, and many of the female protagonists end up in a convent, depicted as a sanctuary from male abuse and as a haven of the women’s community. By writing in a realistic style, Zayas illuminated the struggles faced by women in the paternalistic society of 17th century Spain and guided her readers on how to treat women properly. During her time, Zayas’ work was welcomed with open arms, and she enjoyed the respect of her contemporaries. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the novellas were translated into French, German, Dutch, Italian, and English. The 19th-century puritanism approach changed the perspective of her writings, observing them as vulgar and obscene. As a result, Zayas and her work were forgotten. It was only in the 1970s that feminist scholars rediscovered her, and many scholars worldwide became interested in her and her work, translating, writing papers, and essay collections about them. The interest in her increased the attention of other women writers of the Golden Age. Today she is considered one of the pioneers of modern literary feminism. Read more...