Protecting the Spanish Woman: Gender Identity and Empowerment in María de Zayas's Works

"This book explores how Zayas defies Spanish hegemony by manipulating and transforming the ideals of courtly masculinity. She elaborates a non-official discourse through plots that subvert patriarchal hierarchy to empower women who are no longer willing to remain silent and oppressed by masculine domination. By inverting the male gaze, Zayas destabilizes manly superiority as a basic universal reality, empowering Spanish women to liberate Iberian culture from the repressive future she forebodes"--