Transmisogyny in later (1588–1623) hagiography on Mother Juana de la Cruz (1481–1534)

Abstract

In this article, I contextualise and explain the restriction of what I term ‘trans potential’ in later hagiography on the Spanish visionary abbess Mother Juana de la Cruz (1481–1534). The first written work on Juana included a functionally transmasculine narrative (Juana passed briefly as a man) and a functionally transfeminine narrative (God miraculously feminised the previously male Juana prior to her birth, leaving her with an Adam's apple). In later works, the transmasculine narrative appears significantly modified, and the transfeminine narrative does not appear at all. These textual reformulations, I conclude, are most legible within the framework of transmisogyny.