Comedia Summers: Continued Support from the Pine Tree Foundation Helps Bring Sor Juana to Anglophone Audiences

The Comedia in Translation and Performance working group recently received some fabulous news: the Pine Tree Foundation awarded Diversifying the Classics a grant that will allow us to complete the translation of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s play Amor es más laberinto.

The funds will specifically support graduate students from the working group who will spend their summers editing, annotating, and writing the introduction for the play the group began translating in the fall of 2020. These students will also prepare the plays for publication (in print and online).

The play, previously untranslated, is a generic hybrid which places the characters of Greek myth—Teseo, Ariadna, Fedra (Theseus, Ariadne, Phaedra) and the legendary Cretan Minotaur—into a plot featuring intricate love pentangles, masquerade balls, and other features of Hispanic classical drama, a transatlantic form in the 17^th century. Written in Mexico City, Sor Juana’s play reflects on the nature of tyranny and the complications of love, timely and timeless themes for today’s audiences, and especially for those eager to celebrate the contributions of women writers throughout history. 

Thank you to the Pine Tree Foundation and to its director, Szilvia Szmuk-Tanenbaum—a passionate scholar and supporter of the Spanish Golden Age comedia— for making our project possible!