Female Criminality and “Fake News” in Early Modern Spanish Pliegos Sueltos

Book excerpt: This book studies the Early Modern Spanish broadsheet, the tabloid newspaper of its day which functioned to educate, entertain, and indoctrinate its readers, much like today’s "fake news." Parker Aronson incorporates a socio-historical approach in which she considers crime and deviance committed by women in Early Modern Spain and the correlation between crime and the growth of urban centers. She also considers female deviance more broadly to encompass sexual and religious deviance while investigating the relationship between these pliegos sueltos and the transgressive and disruptive nature of female criminality. In addition to an introduction to this fascinating subgenre of Early Modern Spanish literature, Parker Aronson analyzes the representations of women as bandits and highway robbers; as murderers; as prostitutes, libertines, and actors; as Christian renegades; as enlaved people; as witches; as miscegenationists; and as the recipients of punishment.