Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’ Primero sueño als Allegorie der (Nicht-)Erfahrung

Abstract Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Primero sueño is a text about the search for knowledge that does not come primarily from books, but from her own transcendental experience. The poem does not tell us a (knowledge) story in the true sense of the word, but unfolds a specific model of the thirst for knowledge. The poetry of Primero sueño symbolizes the free and passionate longing for knowledge and ambiguously rejects the act of knowing. The fact that the lyrical ego explicitly recognizes itself as a female in the very last verse can be interpreted in various ways, which are discussed in the article.