Unruly Women: Performance, Penitence, and Punishment in Early Modern Spain

‘Unruly Women provides readers with enough valuable insights on early modern judicial and rehabilitative practices to make it well worth the read.’

Barbara Mujica, Modern Philology vol 112:04:2015

‘Unruly Women deftly explores the relationships between historical recogidas and the fictional female protagonists of the comedia… It will be of interest to scholars and teachers of early modern theater, history, and women’s studies.’

Emily C. Francomano, Hispania vol 98:02:2015

‘Unruly Women provides a strong foundation from which to build a more nuanced understanding of the engendering of early modern women’s roles and behaviors in Spain. This brief volume makes its argument with great clarity; it will be useful to both graduate students and scholars of early modern Spanish cultural studies.’

Stacey Schlau, Renaissance Quarterly vol 68:02:2015

"Margaret Boyle has produced a compelling study, based on the ingenious juxtaposition of the rise of custodial institutions and their interconnections with a thriving professional theater business that nurtured many "unruly" female performers, entrepreneurs, and audience members."

Elizabeth R. Wright, Seventeenth Century News, Volume 73:3&4, Fall/Winter 2015

‘One of the latest in a series of excellent University of Toronto Press books on the social and cultural context of early modern Spanish Literature… Boyle’s work is well grounded in the body of recent scholarship that emphasizes women’s active and formative role in early modern Spanish Society.’

Jodi Campbell, Left History vol 20:01:2016

‘Unruly Women offers a rich discussion of gendered rehabilitative practices and their performative dimensions, both on and off the stage in early modern Spain.’

Jane Bitomsky, Parergon vol 33:01:2016

“Margaret Boyle has chosen a wonderful, timely topic for her monograph. Issues related to women’s punishment and the staging of female deviance are not well studied for Spain’s early modern period. Unruly Women will be of interest to early modernists as well as to colonial Latin Americanists and scholars interested in legal, religious, and performance history.” Lisa Vollendorf, Dean of the College of Humanities and Arts, San José State University

“Margaret Boyle’s lucid and concise study of misbehaving women in early modern Spain is the perfect scholarly blend of real-life rule-breakers and the professional actresses who played them on stage.  Unruly Women problematizes the complex ways in which early modern spectators made sense of women who committed violent acts or disregarded norms for sexual conduct.  In doing so, Boyle invites her readers to consider how rehabilitation and punishment of rebellious women was a nuanced and contested process of both performance and negotiation, whether in a magdalen home, women’s jail, or popular entertainment.” Sherry Velasco, University of Southern California