The Materiality of Meaning: identity and multiple-authorship in Sor María Manuela de Santana’s Esquelas originales de correspondencia espiritual y poesías místicas

This article analyzes the spiritual correspondence of María Manuela de Santana from two perspectives. First, we examine the study of identity carried out in the rhetoric of the Peruvian nun’s letters, with an eye to identifying the messages she is trying to give the reader regarding her spiritual life here on earth. Then we discuss the effects of multiple-authorship on María Manuela de Santana’s voice in the Esquelas by examining the material role in the text of the editing subject. We will center our efforts on the development of María Manuela as both narrator and protagonist, and show how the material manifestations of multiple- authorship affect our perception of women’s voices during the Early Modern age in Spanish America.