This dissertation studies two of the salient stylistic features of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz' Primero sueno: learned words (cultismos) and hyperbaton. To a considerable extent, these two features account for the much-discussed difficulty of the poem. The first chapter reviews several important theoretical documents of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries in order to describe and nuance the notion of obscurity in poes(')ia culta. In the theoretical discussion of the period three types of obscurity can be discerned: doctrinal, conceptual and verbal. The latter was believed to be a result of the excessive use of learned words and hyperbata. Chapter II discusses the first of these two stylistic devices, the cultismo lexico. Relying on phonetic and historical criteria, I compile a list of the learned words in the poem, including also the cultismos semanticos. The discussion of the learned words and their comparison with the lexicon of authors prior to Sor Juana--principally Fern and o de Herrera and Luis de Gongora--leads to a revision of some of the accepted critical opinions about the relationship between Sor Juana and her precursors. Of the more than eight hundred learned words in Primero sueno, almost half had already been used by Herrera. and although Gongora inherited many of these, a subtantial number appears in Herrera and not in Gongora. The line of descent, then, is not necessarily Herrera/Gongora, Gongora/Sor Juana. These lexical affinities suggest the possibility of the direct influence of Herrera on Sor Juana. In the case of Gongora, the study proves the opposite: Sor Juana's debt to the author of the Soledades has perhaps been exaggerated. Although over five hundred learned words in Primero sueno also were used by Gongora, nearly three hundred were not. A closer look at the ep(')itetos cultos also disclaims Sor Juana's supposed "total dependence" on Gongora. Finally, the chapter details some additions and corrections to Corominas' Diccionario cr(')itico etimologico and Breve diccionario etimologico. Chapter III examines the other component of verbal obscurity. The analysis of the many instances of hyperbaton in the poem reveals a number of phenomena closely related to syntactic dislocations and displacements: the hiperbaton de los extremos, several types of trenzados, the hiperbaton vertical, the relationship between hiperbaton and bimembracion, and the orden regresivo of some verses. The chapter also discusses the thematic function of hyperbaton, demonstrating how the syntax contributes to or parallels the content in many of the poem's passages. The second part of the chapter consists of a Classification and Catalogue of hyperbata. The Classification summarizes the types of hyperbata in the poem, while the Catalogue furnishes a line by line description of the ways in which these different types accumulate in one passage and at times in one verse. This analysis of the Primero sueno should not only further our underst and ing of one of the most important works of the literature of Colonial Spanish America, but also serve as a point of departure for other, more general, studies of the language and stylistic resources of the poes(')ia culta of the Baroque Period.Ph.D.Latin American literatureUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/157805/1/8017336.pd
