Self-Fashioning Through Knowledge

Sor Juana's life exemplifies self-fashioning through knowledge: she created an identity as a thinker and writer within systems designed to limit her agency. Self-fashioning through knowledge is the deliberate act of using intellectual work to build and claim an authentic self. For individuals in poverty, this concept offers a framework for understanding how learning, writing, artistic practice, and philosophical inquiry can be tools of identity construction when material circumstances seem to deny agency. This is not about escaping poverty through individual effort alone, but recognizing how intellectual work affirms human dignity and autonomy. Sor Juana's defense of women's right to knowledge shows that identity-building through learning is both personal development and political statement, challenging the structures that would define poor and marginalized people solely through their economic status.