1st Edition
Female Criminality and “Fake News” in Early Modern Spanish Pliegos Sueltos
This book studies the Early Modern Spanish broadsheet, the tabloid newspaper of its day which functioned to educate, entertain, and indoctrinate its readers, much like today’s "fake news." Parker Aronson incorporates a socio-historical approach in which she considers crime and deviance committed by women in Early Modern Spain and the correlation between crime and the growth of urban centers. She also considers female deviance more broadly to encompass sexual and religious deviance while investigating the relationship between these pliegos sueltos and the transgressive and disruptive nature of female criminality. In addition to an introduction to this fascinating subgenre of Early Modern Spanish literature, Parker Aronson analyzes the representations of women as bandits and highway robbers; as murderers; as prostitutes, libertines, and actors; as Christian renegades; as enlaved people; as witches; as miscegenationists; and as the recipients of punishment.
Introduction to the Pliegos Sueltos
Women as Bandits and Highway Robbers
Women as Murderers: Mariticide and Infanticide
Women as Prostitutes, Libertines, (and Actors)
Women as Christian Renegades
Women as Enslaved Individuals
Women as Witches and Sorceresses
Women as Miscegenationists
Women Punished (and Transformed into Hybrids)
Conclusion
Biography
Stacey L. Parker Aronson is a Professor of Spanish at the University of Minnesota Morris. She earned her M.A. in Spanish at the University of Kansas and her Ph.D. in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Languages and Literature at the University of Minnesota. At the University of Minnesota Morris, she teaches all levels of language and literature. She conducts and publishes research on 16th-17th century Spanish Peninsular literature, particularly literature by women; the literary representation of sexual violence; Cervantes; and the theme of female criminality in early modern Spanish broadsheets (pliegos sueltos). She has published in such journals as Bulletin de los Comediantes, Cervantes, Hispanic Journal, Laberinto Journal, Letras Femeninas, Letras Peninsulares, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Romance Notes and in the book Interdisciplinary Essays on Cannibalism: Bites Here and There, published by Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, 2021.
