The Life of Catalina de Erauso, the Lieutenant Nun: An Early Modern Autobiography

Overview

This book examines Vida y sucesos de la Monja Alférez as a form of autobiography through a comparative study with early-modern secular life narratives. Two questions are addressed. How is Vida y sucesos similar to or different from picaresque novels, chronicles of the New World and soldiers’ narratives? How are the similarities and differences between Vida y sucesos and these forms of writing related to theoretical parameters for an autobiography? This book argues that Vida y sucesos should be considered as a form of autobiography, with the understanding that autobiography is an intersubjective and hybrid form or a forma fronteriza.