Geographical classification

Europe > Spain

Socio-cultural movements

Early modern period > Querelle des femmes

Early modern period > Baroque

Groups by dedication

Writers > Poets

Writers > Dramatists / Playwrights

Writers > in > Spanish

Professionals / Other groups > Slaves

Character
Una

Ana Caro Mallén de Torres

Granada, Sevilla or Utrera c. 1590 ‖ Sevilla c. 1649

Period of activity: From 1628 until 1645

Geographical classification: Europe > Spain

Socio-cultural movements

Early modern period > Querelle des femmes

Early modern period > Baroque

Groups by dedication

Writers > Poets

Writers > Dramatists / Playwrights

Writers > in > Spanish

Professionals / Other groups > Slaves

Context of feminine creation

Ana Caro was one of the first European women writers by trade.

She belonged to a generation of Baroque women writers of great influence, but little recognition, who formed part of the Querella de las mujeres, who demanded the right to education and culture for women, such as María de Zayas, novelist and playwright, of whom she was a friend, as well as the Countess of Paredes, a notable matrocinator of women writers. 

It was the Countess of Paredes who published the works of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a contemporary of hers and the true pinnacle of the Baroque, as well as the playwright of Los empeños de una casa and Amor es más laberinto. 

The playwright Feliciana Enríquez de Guzmán wrote alongside Ana Caro, who created Las tres gracias mohosas (The Three Mouldy Graces), which was not in keeping with Lope de Vega's precepts, and the poet Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, whose Vida espiritual is very disturbing; Catalina de Erauso, the famous ensign nun, a fearless lesbian adventurer who wrote her autobiography; and the satirical poet Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán, among others, wrote during the same period.

Ana Caro was also a contemporary of the English writers Mary Astell and Aphra Behn, a comedy writer and the first novelist in English, respectively, and of the Italian Lucrezia Marinella and the French Marie de Gournay. They are all representatives of the women's quarrel. The relationships between them form female networks of literary creation in the 17th century.

 

Review

Professional Spanish playwright belonging to the querelle des femmes. She used her plays to defend the right to education and autonomy for women. She was an adoptive daughter to Gabriel Caro de Mallén (who had connections in the royal family) and Ana María de Torres. She was a morisco slave that became linked to her adoptive parents thanks to "prohijamiento", an adoption system established by Philip II of Spain. Her main works, out of those that have survived to our days, are Valor, agravio y mujer and El conde Partinuplés. They share some characteristics with the plays written by Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca but stand out because of the author's feminine perspective. 

Justifications

  • Relevant author of baroque drama in the Iberian Peninsula.
  • Her works follow the same precepts as Lope's, but female characters are singled out.
  • Professional writer who was, obviously, paid for her work
  • Representative of the querelle des femmes, a movement that is initiated in Hispanic literature in the 15th century with Teresa de Cartagena and Isabel de Villena
  • Her works are praised and appreciated by 17th century critics.
  • Representative of a minority of morisco origin.

Biography

Ana Caro's place of birth is uncertain: she might have been born in Granada, Seville or Utrera.

According to investigator and playwright Juana Escabias, Ana Caro was from Granada, an adoptive daughter to Gabriel Caro Mallén, who had married Ana María de Torres in Granada, where he worked at the Real Audiencia (Royal Audience). The couple baptized a child adopted through "prohijamiento" in 1601 and named her Ana María. For that reason, she is thought to have been born between 1590 and 1601, because girls adopted though this system could not be older than nine and a half. 

There is little biographical data about Ana Caro, and not many of her works have survived: since she died in the plague, all of her belongings were burnt to avoid contagion. We know that she didn't marry, probably because she was morisco.

The Caro Mallén left Granada around 1625 and moved to Seville, where the playwright lived for most of her life. In 1637, however, she moved to Madrid to complete a royal commission by the superior of her older brother. In Seville, she published her first work, Relación poética de fiestas religiosas por los mártires del Japón, which was performed at San Francisco's convent in Seville in 1628.

Even though just a small part of her literary production has survived (two comedies, one prologue, two religious plays, four accounts, and five poems), we know that she published and reedited her plays, both alone and in anthologies together with great authors such as Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca. We also know that she wrote plays for the Corpus Christi celebrations in Seville, and she was paid for those commissions, thus becoming one of the first professional Spanish playwrights. She belonged to the querelle des femmes. In her works, she defended the right to education and culture for women.

 

Escabias, Juana (2017). “Valor, agravio y mujer”, in Vida y obra de Ana Caro Mallén. Seville: Benilde Ediciones.

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Caro_de_Mall%C3%A9n  (10/01/2022)

http://www2.ual.es/ideimand/ana-caro-mallen-de-soto-1590-1646-dramaturga/  (10/01/2022)

https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/17213/ana-caro-de-mallen-y-soto  (10/01/2022)

https://lclcarmen1bac.wordpress.com/puellae-doctae-mujeres-doctas-mujeres-escritoras/puellae-doctae-las-mujeres-escritoras-del-barroco/ana-caro-de-mallen/   (10/01/2022)

Works

English

Spanish

Relación, en que se da cuenta de las grandiosas fiestas, que en el convento de N.P.S. Francisco de la Ciudad Sevilla se han hecho a los Santos Mártires de Japón (1628)

Grandiosa victoria que alcançó de los Moros de Tetuán Iorge de Mendoça y Piçaña, General de Ceuta, quitándoles gran suma de ganados cerca de las mesmas puestas de Tetuán (1633)

Relación de la grandiosa fiesta, y octava, que la Iglesia parroquial del glorioso San Miguel de la Ciudad de Sevilla, hizo don García Sarmiento de Sotomayor, Conde de Salvatierra, Marqués de Sobroso, Gentilombre de la Camara del Rey nuestro señor, y del Serenissimo Infante, Cauallero de la Orden de Santiago, Assistente, y Maese de Campo General de la gente de guerra de Seuilla, y su partido, por su Magestad (1635)

Valor, agravio y mujer (c. 1636)  http://www.comedias.org/caro/valagr.pdf (10/01/2022)

Contexto de las reales fiestas que se hicieron en el Palacio de Buen Retiro a la coronación del Rey de Romanos, y entrada en Madrid de la Señora Princesa de Cariñán en tres discursos (1637)

Décimas a Doña María de Zayas y Sotomayor (1638) 

Loa Sacramental (1639)

Décimas en elogio de D. Francisco Salado Garces y Ribera (1640)

El conde Partinuplés (c. 1640)

 http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/el-conde-partinuples/  (10/01/2022)

La Barrera (1645)

She wrote a sonet to Doña Inés Jacinta Manrique de Lara, being her sick.

Bibliography

Baranda Leturio, Nieves (2004). “Las escritoras en el siglo XVII. En Ignacio Arellano (coord.), Paraninfos, segundones y epígonos de la comedia del Siglo de Oro, Barcelona: GRISO, Universidad de Navarra/ Anthropos, pp. 21-28.
Colón Calderón, Isabel (sf). “Ana Caro Mallén de Soto”. Real Diccionario de la historia. https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/17213/ana-caro-de-mallen-y-soto (10/01/2022)
Escabias, Juana (2012). “Ana María Caro Mallén de Torres: una esclava en los corrales de comedias del siglo XVII”, EPOS, XXVIII, pp. 177-193.
Ferrer Valls, Teresa (1995). “La ruptura del silencio: mujeres dramaturgas en el siglo XVII”. En Sonia Mattalía, Milagros Aleza Izquierdo (Coord).  Mujeres, escrituras y lenguajes (en la cultura latinoamericana y española) (pp. 91-108). Valencia: Universitat de València.

lclcarmen1bac (s.f). Ana Caro de Mallén. https://lclcarmen1bac.wordpress.com/puellae-doctae-mujeres-doctas-mujeres-escritoras/puellae-doctae-las-mujeres-escritoras-del-barroco/ana-caro-de-mallen/ (25/03/2022)
Luna Rodríguez, Lola (1996). “Ana Caro, una escritora de oficio”. En Leyendo como mujer la imagen de la Mujer (pp. 138-157). Barcelona-Sevilla: Anthropos- Instituto Andaluz de la Mujer, Junta de Andalucía.
Pascua Sánchez, María José de la. “Ana Caro Mallén de Soto, dramaturga (1590-1646)”. In Identidad e Imagen de Andalucía en la Edad Moderna http://www2.ual.es/ideimand/ana-caro-mallen-de-soto-1590-1646-dramaturga/(10/01/2022)

Stroud, Mathew D. (1986). “La literatura y la mujer en el Barroco: “Valor, agravio y mujer” de Ana Caro”. En A. David Kossoff (coord.), Ruth H. Kossoff (coord.), Geoffrey Ribbans (coord.), José Amor y Vázquez (coord.), Actas del VIII Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas (vol. II, pp. 605-612). Madrid: Itsmo.
Urban Baños, Alba (2010). “Las protagonistas ideadas por dramaturgas: ¿damas que desdicen su nombre?”. En Germán Vega García-Luengos y Héctor Urzáiz Tortajada (coords.), Cuatrocientos años del “Arte nuevo de hacer comedias” de Lope de Vega. Actas selectas del XIV Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Teatro Español y Novohispano de los Siglos de Oro (pp. 1057-1066). Valladolid: Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Valladolid.
Urban Baños, Alba (2011). “El “yugo de himeneo”: obligación, elección y desenlace en El conde Partinuplés de Ana Caro”. En Elisa García-Lara y Antonio Serrano (coords.), Dramaturgos y espacios teatrales andaluces de los siglos XVI-XVII. Actas de las XXVI Jornadas de Teatro del Siglo de Oro (pp. 385-402). Almería: Instituto de Estudios Almerienses.

Audiovisuals (in Spanish):

Instituto Cervantes. Entrevista a Ignacio García sobre la obra de Ana Caro de Mallén. En el Club Virtual de Lectura del Instituto Cervantes https://youtu.be/7w_1cmE3LEw  26/01/2022)

Performance of El conde Partinuclés  https://youtu.be/LIZlF295070 (26/01/2022)

Caro de Mallén, Ana (2019). Ciclo Ana Caro Mallén: El Conde Partinuplès / Valor agravio y mujer. Festival de Almagro. https://youtu.be/ghtJJ8wCtck (26/01/2022)

Didactic approach

 She can be studied in Spanish Language and Literature.

Also, in Universal Literature.

Documents