María de Zayas y Sotomayor (before 12 September 1590 – 1661?) wrote during Spain's Golden Age of literature. She is considered by a number of modern critics as one of the pioneers of literary feminism, while others consider her simply a well-accomplished baroque author. The female characters in de Zayas's stories were used as vehicles to enlighten readers about the plight of women in Spanish society, or to instruct them in proper ways to live their lives.
Biography
Born in Madrid, de Zayas was the daughter of infantry captain Fernando de Zayas y Sotomayor and María Catalina de Barrasa. Her baptism was known to have taken place in the church of San Sebastian on 12 September 1590, and given the fact that most of Spain's well-to-do families baptized their infants days after birth, it may be deduced that de Zayas was born days before this date. Little is known with any certainty about her life. We do not know whether she was single or married or whether she spent part of her life in Naples or not. In 1637, de Zayas published her first collection of novellas, Novelas amorosas y ejemplares (The Enchantments of Love) in Zaragoza, and 10 years later, her second collection, Desengaños amorosos (The Disenchantments of Love), was published. De Zayas also wrote a play, La traicion en la amistad, (Friendship Betrayed) as well as poetry. The author enjoyed the respect and admiration of some of the best male writers of her day. Among her many admirers were Lope de Vega, who dedicated some of his poetry to her, and Alonso de Castillo Solórzano, who named her the "Sibila de Madrid" (Sibyl of Madrid). Despite the enduring popularity of her works during the 17th and 18th centuries, the 19th-century saw a decline in the popularity of her work with some critics deeming it to be vulgar. Her novellas faded into relative obscurity until they were 'rediscovered' in the late 20th century. After the publication of her last collection of novellas in 1647, she disappears from the records and it is not known for sure when she died. Various death certificates bearing the name María de Zayas have been found. In the introduction to a recent publication of La traición en la amistad Alberto Rodríguez de Ramos makes a convincing case that the María de Zayas whose death was recorded in 1661 is the author of the play and the novellas. If this is true, the author lived in Valladolid between 1631 and 1633 and was married to Juan de Valdés. This identification strengthens the links with convent of the Concepción Jerónima as well as Inés de Casamayor and the son of the Duke of Híjar, to whom the Desengaños amorosos are dedicated. It also implies that Zayas was employed by Margareta de Ulloa, the marquesa de Malagón, before her affiliation with the Duchess of Lemos. Rodríguez likewise sheds more light on the relationship between Zayas and Juan Pérez de Montalbán, whose fathers knew each other, and shows that the author had a sister called Isabel.
The only physical description of de Zayas, which is likely made in jest, comes from Francesc Fontanella in his Vejámenes:
Major works
María de Zayas's most successful works are her Novelas amorosas y ejemplares (Amorous and Exemplary Novels), published in 1637, and Desengaños amorosos (Disenchantments of Love), published in 1647. They are sometimes known as the Spanish Decameron because they followed a structure used by Giovanni Boccaccio. The collection consists of a number of stories or novelas (novelle in Italian) framed by one overarching one. Other examples of such collections are Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Marguerite de Navarre's L'Heptémaron. Further influential novella writers from the period were Matteo Bandello and Masuccio Salernitano, some of whose stories Zayas adapted. In Spain Miguel de Cervantes published his Novelas ejemplares (Exemplary Stories in the English translation) in 1613, in which he dispensed with the frame narrative. Zayas's contemporaries Alonso Castillo Solórzano and Juan Pérez de Montalbán also wrote novellas. The genre allowed Zayas to tell a variety of stories, developing strong characters, and providing a showcase for her range.