Don Juan, an Inversion of Demonic Medieval Femininity

• Autor: Pizarro Granada, Maite
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2022
• Institución: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Repositorio: Revistas - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/25444
• Enlace del recurso: http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/lexis/article/view/25444
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Melancolía; Enfermedad; Contagio; Fragilidad femenina; Melancholy; Illness; Contagion; Female frailty

The amor hereos or aegritudo amoris was a type of medieval melancholy triggered by love rejection. It was caused by women but suffered by men, and it used to show a demonic kind of femininity. Many people would say this erotic conception disappeared, but there is enough evidence to believe don Juan’s tradition could be a different face of the same sort of love. According to this idea, the sinful behavior of don Juan would be a reproduction of the feminine eroticism exposed in the tradition of Spanish amatory treatises. Namely, it would have evolved from being a masculine melancholic disease to being a female one.