Race, gender, and recogimiento: Discursive negotiations of space, sexuality, and productivity in late colonial Mexico

This dissertation examines recogimientos de mujeres [enclosures for women] in Mexico from 1700 to 1821, a period marked by impending crisis for colonial Spain. Recogimientos were carceral institutions that punished women accused of threatening social order with their “scandalous” behavior. Incarcerated women were frequently poor and racially marginalized. I analyze archival materials to understand how race and gender influenced the representation of space, illness, sexuality, and productivity in recogimientos. Given their role in enforcing order, recogimientos are ideal to assess symptoms of social crisis. My project contributes to understanding colonial biopolitics and Enlightenment rhetoric in colonial Mexico.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Spanish

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Gargiulo, Megan Elise

Contributors dc:contributor

• Meléndez, Mariselle
• Beauchamp, Toby
• Irigoyen García, Javier
• Goldman, Dara E
• Cervantes-Gómez, Xiomara V

• women's prisons
• 18th century
• Enlightenment
• forced labor
• urban studies
• carceral studies
• debility

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Megan Gargiulo

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115546

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115546