Experiencing Time in the Early Modern Hispanic World (Routledge Studies in Latin American and Iberian Literature)

This book considers the new ways time was experienced in the sixteenth- and seventeeth-century Hispanic world in the framework of global Catholicism. It underscores the crucial role that the imitation of Christ plays in modeling how representative writers physically and mentally interiorize temporal impermanence as the Messiah’s suffering body becomes a paradigmatic as well as malleable marker of the avatars of earthly history. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which authors adapt Christ-centered conceptions of existence to accommodate both a volatile post-eschatological world and the increased dominance of mechanical clock time. As novel means of communing with Christ emerge, so too do new modes of sensing and understanding time, unleashing unprecedented cultural and literary reinvention. This is demonstrated through close analyses of writings by such influential figures as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Teresa of Ávila, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. 9781003381389_webpdf (1)-compressed Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Time in Early Modernity "Scattered in Times" Time as Scythe Chronos Resurrected Chapter Overview Notes 1. Embracing Clock Time in Loyola's Spiritual Exercises Scheduled Devotion Transcending Vanitas Augustine: Time as a Problem Achieving Duration The Presence of Memory Notes 2. Time Troubles in Teresa of Ávila's Libro de la vida "We are not Angels" Alumbradismo as Rejection of Time Schooling Memory Lux et Brevitas Notes 3. Pious Subjects for a Post-millenarian New Spain The Imperfect Conquest of Time Mendieta's Historia eclesiástica indiana: The End of Kairos Gregorio López: Seizing Stillness Temporalizing the Life of Gregorio López Notes 4. A New New Jerusalem: Sigüenza y Góngora's Paraíso Occidental Resignifying Baroque Space Mexico City as a Place of Memory The Christic Bodies of the Patria Notes 5. Redeemed Temporality: The Infinite Self in Sor Juana's "Primero sueño" Dreaming Wonder The Permanence of Change Resisting Allegory Awakening Solar Time Notes Epilogue Works Cited Index This book considers the new ways time was experienced in the 16th- and 17th-century Hispanic world in the framework of global Catholicism. It examines how authors adapt Christ-centered conceptions of existence to accommodate both a volatile post-eschatological world and the increased dominance of mechanical clock time.