The Rhythms of Time and Taste: Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz and the Temporalities of Culinary Knowledge

This paper explores how time shapes sensory perceptions and knowledge production through the figure of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, focusing on her engagement with culinary and intellectual practices. Sor Juana's reflections on cooking, particularly in Respuesta a sor Filotea and the contested Libro de cocina del convento de San Jerónimo, reveal how everyday culinary routines in the convent embody cyclical temporalities. These practices—centered on waiting, observing transformations, and feeling textures—illustrate a sensory-driven form of knowledge that contrasts with the linear, abstract time associated with the library and formal intellectual labor.

Through a Lefebvrian lens, the convent’s kitchen emerges as a site where time, culture, and sensory experience converge. The temporal rhythms of cooking—measured not by precision but by sensory intuition and memory—allow for a unique epistemological framework that foregrounds embodied learning. This cyclical notion of time, passed down through generations of women in the convent, fosters a collective, transgenerational mode of knowledge transmission, where sensory experiences like taste and touch are central.

In examining these temporal and sensory dynamics, this paper also touches on how nostalgia and memory play roles in the preservation of feminine knowledge. Sor Juana’s culinary philosophy demonstrates that the sensory and the intellectual are not distinct domains but interconnected practices shaped by daily temporal rhythms. By reconsidering time through these everyday rituals, this study contributes to a broader understanding of how sensory experiences and knowledge are constructed in non-linear, embodied ways.