Acceso usuarios
This article examines ties between manuales de conducta and comportments specific to early modern Spanish society to demonstrate the permutations of how aristocracy understood the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century masculine archetype. Analysing Italian originals and their Spanish adaptations, I argue that instead of internalizing gender identity unconsciously as habitus, the manuales act as performative guides that allow readers to adopt it consciously. This article deconstructs the convergence of masculine behaviours towards a more civilized gender identity showcasing the historical decline of violence that generated, adapted and established courtly masculinity as the hegemonic discourse through which a prescriptive view of how courtly virility was conceived, disseminated, adopted, and ultimately performed, by both aristocrats and those who desired to learn traits that would unlock access to the privileged class. Furthermore, this article proposes that the manuales refashion pre-established sixteenth- and seventeenth-century behaviours allowing conscious internalization and performance of hegemonic courtly traits regardless of social class.
