Resumen de On the Matter of ‘Contamination’: Sexual Assault and Social Disgrace in the Balladic Querellas of Doña Lambra and Doña Jimena
For more than a century, scholars have remarked on the similar complaints of ill treatment pronounced by doña Lambra, the manipulative co-conspirator in the legendary murder of the seven Infantes from Lara, and by doña Jimena, the ideal maiden who marries the young Rodrigo Díaz in the Mocedades de Rodrigo, both of which are preserved in several ballads comprising the romancero viejo. Rather than one ballad ‘contaminating’ another—an explanation traditionally cited for the poems’ overlap—this article argues that their points of contact reflect an established association between the two women that existed in the collective imagination.
