Image of Francisco de Goya, Una mujer susurrando a un sacerdote, 1812-23
Francisco de Goya, Una mujer susurrando a un sacerdote, 1812-23

Casuistry in Early Modern Spanish Literature.

This funded project pursues the hypothesis that juridical, theological and medical debates on contested (honor) cases in the Early Modern period bring forth a veritable mindset that entails a fictional boost, hence, it is a considerable prerequisite for the success story of the modern novel.

On the other hand, the boom of narrative casuistry elaborating on knowledge and social regimes retroacts on their very epistemological basis. In this context the project shall allow for new insights regarding the social relevance and embeddedness of the so-called Querelle des Femmes. In adopting this new approach, I can rely on earlier research and publications.

First Outcomes

Book cover Casuistry and Early Modern Spanish Literature

Casuistry in literary genres

https://brill.com/display/title/61632

 

Casuistry and Early Modern Spanish Literature

Eds. Marlen Bidwell-Steiner & Michael Scham. Brill 2022

CONTENT
CASUISTRY AND IMAGINATIVE LITERATURE IN EARLY MODERN SPAIN

MARLEN BIDWELL-STEINER & MICHAEL SCHAM
“Casuistry and Early Modern Spanish Narrative: A Neglected Relationship”

MARLEN BIDWELL-STEINER
“Justice Blindfolded: Law and Crime in the Celestina”

EDWARD H. FRIEDMAN
“Artful Rhetoric: The Case of Lázaro de Tormes”

DAVID ALVAREZ ROBLIN
“The Intrusion of an Apocryphal Guzmán as a (Legal, Moral and Literary) ‘Case’ in Mateo Alemán’s Authentic Second Part”

DAVID MAÑERO LOZANO
“Theological Casuistry and Casuistic Preposterousness: The Fallacious Cases of La pícara Justina”

ANITA TRANINGER
“The Exploration of Circumstance: Casuistry and the Emergence of the Novela Bizantina in Alonso Núñez de Reinoso’s Historia de los amores de Clareo y Florisea, y de los trabajos de Ysea (1552)”

MICHAEL SCHAM
“Comic Casuistry and Common Sense: Sancho Panza’s Governorship”

MECHTHILD ALBERT
„The lawyers’ tales. Legal Casuistics and the Spanish Golden Age Novella (Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa, Alonso de Castillo Solórzano)”

JOSÉ CÁRDENAS BUNSEN
“Opinion, Idolatry, and Indigenous Consciousness: Bartolomé de las Casas’ Approach to Human Sacrifice”

HILAIRE KALLENDORF
“Staging Penance: Scenes of Sacramental Confession in Early Modern Spanish Drama”

In a nutshell: Casuistry in the Spanish Golden Age. Podcast with Teresa Hiergeist:
A shared legal-theological motif in contemporaneous literary masterpieces:

Marlen Bidwell-Steiner: „Die sprechende Wunde der Toten in der frühneuzeitlichen Literatur Spaniens“.

In: Mariacarla Gadebuch-Bondio/Marc Föcking (Hgg.): Die ewige Wunde. Beiträge zu einer Kulturgeschichte unheilbarer Wunden in der Vormoderne. Wolfenbüttel: HAB (Wolfenbütteler Forschungen) 2023, 221-240;

Casuistry and Iconology in the Celestina

Casuistry and Marianism in the Exploitation of Las Indias:

Marlen Bidwell-Steiner: „Trading Goods, Trading Souls between Seville and las Indias. Casuistry, Economy, and Penitence in Seventeenth Century Spain“,

in: Romana Radlwimmer (ed.): Relating Continents. Coloniality and Global Encounters in Romance Literary and Cultural History, Berlin, De Gruyter 2023 (Latin American Literatures in the World / Literaturas Latinoamericanas en el Mundo17), 139-158.

Tamara Bartl: „Des Teufels viele Gesichter. Kasuistische Verhandlungen kolonialer Diskurse in Juan Rodríguez Freyles El Carnero“, in: Bartl, Tamara, Linda Bäumler, Elisabeth Heiszenberger, Tatjana Wais, and Verena Weiland (eds.), Romania Diversa. Beiträge zum 37. Forum Junge Romanistik in Wien (11.-13. April 2022). 28. Band. München: AVM.edition.

Forthcoming

Marlen Bidwell-Steiner: “Casuistry and Self Narration in Early Modern Spain”, in: Matthias Roick/ Sara Miglietti: Reading the Virtues: Literary Culture and the Good Life in Europe, 1450-1750, Special Issue of Renaissance Studies, Vol. ? 2024

Marlen Bidwell-Steiner: “Purity and Pollution – the Early Modern Discourse of Othering in the Context of Lues Venerea”, in: Romana Radlwimmer (ed.): Bodies, Remedies, Policies: From Early Modern Chronicles of the Indies to Covid-19 Narratives, de Gruyter 2024

Marlen Bidwell-Steiner: “Juegos cortesanos entre divertimiento y ética casuística”, in Marlen Bidwell-Steiner/Teresa Hiergeist (eds), Hogar, Metrópolis, Corte: Negociaciones culturales de la sociabilidad en la España del Siglo de Oro. Madrid: Biblioteca aurea hispánica 2025

Marlen Bidwell-Steiner: The Birth of the Self from the Spirit of Casuistry (monography 2025).