Teresa De Avila, Lettered Woman

In order to illuminate Teresa's (1515-82) life and struggles, Mujica (Spanish, Georgetown U.) draws more on letters by the Spanish nun than on near-contemporary biographies or even on her own autobiographical writing, which she wrote at the request of her superiors to assure them of her orthodoxy. She covers the transformation from Teresa de Ahumda to Saint Teresa, Teresa de Jes繳s as a woman of letters, God's warrior and her epistolary weapons, correspondence and correspondents, letter-writing as self-representation, and her letters as relics. Seven letters with original translations are appended. Annotation 穢2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)