Scripts of Shame in Old Spanish Verse: Libro de Apolonio, Vida de Santa María Egipçiaca and Libro de buen amor

Abstract

This dissertation traces “scripts of shame”—or guidelines for performing this emotion that readers can glean from engaging with literature—in a series of medieval Iberian narrative poems: Libro de Apolonio [Book of Apollonius], Vida de Santa María Egipçiaca [Life of Mary of Egypt, and Libro de buen amor (Book of Good Love). My main argument is that while these poems generate shame scripts, they address questions of female holiness, poetics, courtship, and, most notably, sex and sexual sin. Chapter One situates this dissertation’s scholarly intervention within two related fields: affect studies and shame studies, laying the groundwork for the project’s historical, theoretical, and methodological frameworks. Chapter Two focuses on how the 13th-century Libro de Apolonio enacts discursive shame, reconceptualizing this poem as a sustained riddle about sex and sexual sin. Chapter Three explores the 13th-century Vida de Santa María Egipçiaca through the lens of medieval confession, arguing that the text both follows and deviates from the affective scripts of this sacrament. Finally, Chapter Four argues that the 14th-century Libro de buen amor engages with affective scripts that conceive of shame as both a deterrent to love and an integral part of love. By uncovering these scripts, my research provides new insights into the study of affect and medieval Iberian narrative poetry, demonstrating that while this poetry often produces and reifies emotional norms based on social and cultural hierarchies, it also allows for the subversion of these norms.