Posted by Miguel A. Balsa on March 02, 192003 at 22:44:00:
Miguel Ángel Balsa
March 2, 2003
NOTES ON DOUBLE CODED PERFORMANCE:
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ’S
“LOA FOR THE AUTO SACRAMENTAL
OF THE DIVINE NARCISSUS”
Narcissus was a divinely beautiful boy, born to the half woman-half flower nymph Liriope after she was raped by the lust-driven river Cephissus. Since he was born, Narcissus’ beauty was so dazzling that it troubled Liriope. As Narcissus grew up, every man and woman who ever set their eyes on the boy immediately fell in love with him. In contrast, Narcissus remained indifferent to the passions his beauty raised in other people’s hearts; he was even immune to the charms of the nymph Echo, whose love he scornfully turned down. Out of spite, Echo asked the goddess Nemesis to avenge her wounded heart by casting a spell on Narcissus, so that one day he would fall in love with someone with whom he would never be able to consummate his love. One day Narcissus went to quench his thirst at a spring, and the moment he bent over and saw his own reflection on the surface, he could not take his eyes off his own image on the water. Despite Narcissus’ efforts, the beautiful image he so intensely desired never talked to him; all it did was imitate whatever he did. Narcissus grew so desperate at his loved one’s indifference that he wept and his tears fell into the pool. He thus realized not only that the object of his desire was nothing more than his own reflection but also that it could disappear--it inevitably happened whenever he tried to kiss or touch it. In other words, Narcissus found himself in a paradoxical situation in which there was no possibility whatsoever for him to fulfill his desire. On the one hand, he would need to give up his physical body in order to be able to physically possess the object of his desire; on the other hand, the object of his desire lacked any corporeal substance, and therefore it could not possibly exist if he gave up his physical body. Narcissus, unable to bear his existence anymore, killed himself, and his body was transformed into a flower which ever since bends over and forever looks at its own reflection on the water.
The myth of Narcissus, it seems to me, informs crucial features in Sor Juana’s loa, both from the perspective of form and content. From a certain viewpoint--and as the word “allegory” announces--characters, stories, images, and ideas can be interpreted as reflections of something else. I will try to point out a few examples. One of the most prominent of these “reflections” is the loa’s mise-en-abîme structure--like in a “chamber of mirrors,” the playwright presents us with a play (the “Loa”) which refers to a different play (the “Auto of the Divine Narcissus”) which in turn is written as a consequence of the events that take place in the “Loa.” The mirroring is also present when one considers that the two groups of characters in the “Loa” are symmetrical: on both sides, we find two main characters, a female (America vs. Religion) and a male (Orient vs. Zeal), and a kind of “choir” or collective character which backs and echoes them with their words and actions (Musicians vs. Soldiers). The symmetry or reflection can also be observed when Occident and America describe the celebrations and myths of “the great God of the Seeds,” which so very closely resemble the Catholic mass, as well as the notions of Holy Communion and Transubstantiation.
Let’s take this last example in order to help me advance my argument. The striking resemblance between the indigenous and the Catholic religions which Sor Juana presents us with could be read, at least, in two radically different ways. One possible interpretation would be, as the character of Religion states, that this resemblance is due to the Devil’s attempts to “mock the mysteries of God,” which would justify the Catholic Church’s and the Castillian Crown’s efforts to impose “truth” and “good” at any cost in the Americas.
It would also be possible, however, to venture a much riskier interpretation, according to which both religions would be practically the same. It should suffice to relate the following verses about the indigenous’ God of the Seeds to holy communion: “We eat his body, drink his blood, and by this sacred meal are freed and cleansed from all that is profane, and thus, he purifies our soul.” Of course, this parallel potentially would raise questions about the very foundations of an imperial domination one of whose underpinnings was the propagation and defense of the only “true” Catholic Faith, or at least about the legitimacy of the use of violence to impose certain religious or political views over others. Along these lines, it could be said that the Catholic Church, not unlike Narcissus, was unable to recognize any good beyond its own image projected onto the Americas.
This example illustrates why the “mirroring structure” that Sor Juana set up in her loa is so interesting from a political perspective. She resorted to an extremely common feauture (real or metaphorical mirrors, mises-en-abisme, mazes were frequent in many artistic expressions of the Baroque) in order to make it politically relevant. This very structure allowed her to construct a play in which all interpretations were possible: depending on which exact point of the set of mirrors one places him or herself, the perspective changes substantially. Thus, the playwright enabled herself to encode a certain message of political resistance without putting herself in a position which openly defied the established and intertwined political and religious powers of the Empire.