Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2008
Publication Title
Renaissance Quarterly
Abstract
This article examines how the experience and critique of their country decline led Spaniards to craft a distinct discourse of masculinity in the seventeenth century. As they self-consciously examined Spain crisis and offered political and economic solutions, these same writers also offered a scathing critique of standards of masculinity. Using the figure of the ideal nobleman as a case study, the article examines how moralists, arbitristas, and hagiographers constructed a dynamic code of manhood linked to questions of productivity, male chastity, and military performance. Further, it argues that this discourse was ultimately nostalgic and failed to adapt itself to the circumstances of the seventeenth century.
Repository Citation
Lehfeldt, Elizabeth, "Ideal Men: Masculinity and Decline in Seventeenth-Century Spain" (2008). History Faculty Publications. 10.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clhist_facpub/10
Original Citation
Elizabeth A. Lehfeldt, "Ideal Men: Masculinity and Decline in Seventeenth-Century Spain," Renaissance Quarterly 61 no. 2 (2008): 463-494.
Volume
61
Issue
2
DOI
10.1353/ren.0.0024
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© 2008 by University of Chicago Press. Available on publisher's site at http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1353/ren.0.0024.
