Practicas Escriturales Femeninas: Espacialidad e Identidad en Epistolas en la Colonia (Rio de la Plata, Siglos XVI-XVII)

Letters written by women in the Rio de la Plata during the 16th and 17th centuries reveal a transformative practice of empowerment, challenging traditional humanist epistolary models. Analyzing eleven unpublished letters from the Archivo General de Indias, this study demonstrates that these epistles functioned as polysynthetic genres, blending elements of accounts, petitions, and diaries to meet the communicative needs of colonial contexts. The research argues that such letters belong more to the 'ars dictaminis' than the classical 'ars epistolandi,' necessitating a reevaluation of existing frameworks for interpreting early American correspondence. Additionally, it highlights how these texts served as spaces for identity construction, showing a reciprocal relationship between gender and spatiality in colonial writing practices.

Silva, Y. (2011). Practicas Escriturales Femeninas: Espacialidad e Identidad en Epistolas en la Colonia (Rio de la Plata, Siglos XVI-XVII) [University of Massachusetts Amherst]. https://doi.org/10.7275/2176877