Anomalous women in fifteenth-century castilian ballads

Abstract

In this thesis I examine anomalous women in fifteenth-century ballads. As well as taking into account the exterior socio-political factors moulding the romancero development, I look closely at the internal workings such as the literary tools affecting women’s depiction. Scholarship has already produced a number of studies with respect to women in the romancero. However, there has not yet been a comprehensive study, and so in this thesis I am looking to establish paradigms of acceptable and unacceptable behaviours and attitudes with respect to their literary depiction. Having logged the details of almost three hundred ballads, only a dozen or so stand out as containing women not conforming to an ideal and orthodox type that dominates the genre. I consider these ideal women (religious and secular) in Chapters II and III respectively. The subsequent chapters address women who are anomalous women within sub-categories. 'Provocative Doncellas' includes El caballero burlado, also known as La hija del rey de francia. Rosaflorida, and ¡Hélo, helo por do viene. 'Serranillas and Women in the Natural Environment' looks at Estáse la gentil dama and Fontefrida. The chapter on 'Dissatisfied Women' considers Romance de la bella malmaridada. Rosa Fresca, and Romance de Durandarte. Finally, I consider Mora Moraima as a paradigm of the 'Ethnically Marginalised Woman'. For the most part I use Brian Dutton'ร El cancionero del siglo XV: с. 1360- 1520, although some versions Dutton's cancioneros are incomplete, therefore I note when I use another source for the text.