The Renunciation as Forced Submission

Sor Juana's forced renunciation of her intellectual pursuits—her signing away of books and instruments—reveals a deeper institutional logic: power requires not just compliance but confession and self-erasure. The renunciation functioned as public testimony to the Church's authority and to Sor Juana's supposed error. This concept applies to civil disobedience by exposing how regimes often demand more than obedience; they demand that subjects renounce their own agency and validate the system's righteousness. Understanding this pattern helps resisters recognize when compliance has become a tool of deeper subjugation. Across traditions, those practicing civil disobedience often refuse not just the unjust rule but also the demand to renounce their principles or erase their identity. Resistance includes refusing forced submission of self.