General Introductions to the Latin American and Caribbean Novel
Alegría, Fernando. Nueva historia de la novela hispanoamericana. Hanover, NH: Ediciones del Norte, 1986.
Chronological discussion of the major movements in Latin American literature during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Includes analysis of the emergence of the new novel in the 1950s.
Amorós, Andrés. Introducción a la novela hispanoamericana actual. Salamanca: Anaya, 1973.
A study of the contemporary novel in Latin America with some discussion of antecedents of the new novel. Analysis of works by Ernesto Sábato, Julio Cortázar, Juan Rulfo, Carlos Fuentes, Alejo Carpentier, José Lezama Lima, Juan Carlos Onetti, Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez.
Arnold, James, ed. A History of Liteature in the Caribbean. 3 vols. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1994.
The most complete overview of Caribbean literature written in Spanish, French, English, Dutch, and creole languages of the region.
Arrom, José Juan. Esquema generacional de las letras hispanoamericanas: Ensayo de un método. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 1963.
A pioneering study of Latin American literature using a generational approach, including discussion of many major writers.
Avelar, Idelbar. The Untimely Present: Postdictatorial Latin American Fiction and the Task of Mourning. Durham: Duke University Press, 1999.
In-depth readings of novels published in the southern cone region after the dictatorships there in the 1970s and 1980s.
Bellini, Giuseppe. Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana. Madrid: Castalia, 1985.
A well-informed chronological overview of the development of the Spanish American literature from the pre-Columbian period to the twentieth century, with the emphasis on writers and the movements. Introduces both major and minor writers.
Brotherston, Gordon. The Emergence of the Latin American Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
A well-informed introduction to the Latin American novel, with the emphasis on the development of the modern novel and on the writers who contributed to the rise of the new novel: Asturias, Carpentier, Onetti, Rulfo, Cortázar, Arguedas, Vargas Llosa, and García Márquez. Lengthy discussion of major works.
Brushwood, John S. The Spanish American Novel: A Twentieth-Century Survey. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975.
A well-informed and analytical introduction to the Spanish American novel from 1900 to 1970. Clear and precise style avoids jargon and makes this book accessible to the nonspecialist.
Cudjoe, Selwyn, ed. Caribbean Women Writers. Wellesley: Calaloux, 1990.
Informed and useful essays on women writers from the Caribbean region.
Dash, Michale J. The Other America: Caribbean Literature in a New World Context. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1998.
Insightful analysis and discussion of Caribbean writers who write in English, French, and Spanish.
Foster, David W. Gay and Lesbian Themes in Latin American Writing. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
Informed and pioneering study on gay fiction in Latin America.
Franco, Jean. Spanish-American Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969.
Deals with much literature published before 1945, but there are chapters that treat regionalism, realism, and the Indianist novel. Closes with a glimpse of the Boom.
Gallagher, D. P. Modern Latin American Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973.
An introduction Latin American literature, it includes chapters on poetry and novel. Focus on major writers, including Borges, Vargas Llosa, García Márquez, and Cabrera Infante.
Glissant, Eduoard. Caribbean Discourse: Selected Essays. Trans. Michael Dash. Charlotesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989.
Translation from the French of a seminal essay on Caribbean culture.
Goiá, Cedomil. Historia de la novela hispanoamericana. Valparaíso: Universitaria, 1972.
A classic history of Latin American novel, it offers incisive readings of individual texts, including some thirty novelists from Fernández de Lizardi to Mario Vargas Llosa.
González Echevarría, Roberto. Myth and Archive: A Theory of Latin American Literature. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990.
One of the most influential theories about Latin American literature, based on vast readings of Latin American culture, literature and theory.
———Voice of the Masters: Writing and Authority in Latin American Literature. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985.
Influential and seminal readings of modern Latin American writers.
Lindstrom, Naomi. The Social Conscience of Latin American Writing. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.
Discussion and analysis of major directions of modern Latin American writing with emphasis on the social.
Lorenz, Günter W. Diálogo con Latinoamérica. Valparaíso: Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, 1972.
A collection of conversations with Latin American writers such as Ernesto Sábato, Ricardo E. Molinari, Antonio Di Benedetto, Mario Vargas Llosa, Rosario Castellanos, and João Guimarães Rosa. Each chapter also includes biography of the writer and the bibliographical reference of his/her works.
Ludmer, Josefina. El cuerpo del delito: un manual. Buenos Aires: Perfil, 1999.
A lengthy (508-page), informed and insightful study of various literary topics related to gender issues and transgression.
Shaw, Donald. Antonio Skármeta and the Post Boom. Hanover, NH: Edicíones del Norte, 1994.
Shaw emphasizes that the “extreme pessimism” characteristic of the Boom shifted to a new optimism in the Post-Boom.
Sommer, Doris. Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
Insightful and influential essays on the novels that preceded the post-WWII novel.
Williams, Raymond L. The Twentieth-Century Spanish American Novel. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.
General introduction to the twentieth-century Spanish American novel.
Studies on the National Novel
Argueta, Mario. Diccionario de escritores hondureños. Tegucigalpa: Letras Hondureñas No. 61, 1993.
Contains very brief entries on major and minor writers from Honduras.
Brushwood, John S. Mexico in Its Novel. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966.
A well-informed and thorough introduction to the Mexican novel, with literary contexts and critical reading of the nineteenth and twentieth century Mexican novels.
Castillo, Debra. Easy Women: Sex and Gender in Modern Mexican Fiction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.
Feminist readings of modern Mexican novels from the early twentieth century to the present.
Curcio Altamar, Antonio. Evolución de la novela en Colombia. Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Cultura, 1975.
A classic study of the Colombian novel orginally published in 1952, it provides an introduction to the Colombian novel from the colonial period to the 1940s. A traditional literary historian of his time, Curcio Altamar demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the Colombian novel.
DiAntonio, Robert F. Brazilian Fiction: Aspects of Evolution in Contemporary Narrative. Fayeteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1989.
Discussion of a broad range of topics and many modern Brazilian novels. Very useful for its breadth.
Forero Villegas, Yolanda. Un eslabón perdido: la novela de los años cuarenta (1941–1949), primer proyecto moderno en Colombia. Bogotá: Kelly, 1994.
Pioneer work into an unknown area of Colombian literary history: the early modern novel of the 1940s, including relatively unknown novelists, such as Jaime Ardila Casamitjana.
García Corales, Guillermo. Relaciones de poder y carnalización en la novela chilena contemporánea. Santiago: Asterión, 1995.
Insightful and informed analysis of major contemporary novelists of Chile.
López Tamés, Román. La narrativa actual de Colombia y su contexto social. Valladolid: Universidad de Vallodolid, 1975.
A reading of the modern Colombian novel with emphasis on the sociopolitical context as well as the topics of solitude and the civil war of La Violencia. Major writers include Gabriel García Márquez and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.
Masiello, Francine. Between Civilization and Barbarism: Women, Nation, and Literary Culture in Argentina. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Pioneering research on the predecessors to the WWII novel in Argentina.
Menton, Seymour. Historia crítica de la novela guatemalteca. Guatemala: Universitaria, 1960.
A history of the Guatemalan novel. Dividing thirty-six novelists into eight generations, he includes works published up until 1958.
———La novela colombiana: planetas y satélites. Bogotá: Plaza y Janés, 1978.
In-depth analysis of major novels (“planets”) and minor novels (“satellites”) from Colombia, including classic novels published before 1945 as well as modern authors, such as Gabriel García Márquez and Héctor Rojas Herazo.
Schwarz, Roberto. O pai de família e outros estudos. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1978.
Fifteen informed and illuminating essays on literary and cultural topics related to modern Brazil.
Silverman, Malcom. Protesto e o novo romance brasileiro. Rio de Janeiro: Civilizacão Brasileira, 2000.
A lengthy and in-depth study of social themes in a broad range of Brazilian novels.
Steele, Cynthia. Politics and Gender in the Mexican Novel, 1968–1988. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992.
Well-informed feminist and political analysis of two decades of Mexican fiction.
Süssekind, Flora. Cintematograph of Words: Literature, Technique and Modernization in Brazil. Trans. Paul Henriques Britto. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
A refined study of early twentieth-century Brazilian literature.
Stegagno Picchio, Luciana. História da literatura brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Nova, 1997.
A well-informed and encyclopedic introduction to Brazilian literature in all genres from the colonial period to 1996. Useful and accurate information on recent fiction of the 1980s and 1990s.
———La letteratura brasiliana. Milan: Sansoni-Accademia, 1972.
An informed and encyclopedic introduction to Brasilian literature of all genres until 1971.
Studies on Specific Topics of Latin American and Caribbean Fiction
Adams, M. Ian. Three Authors of Alienation: Bombal, Onetti, Carpentier. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975.
Perceptive analysis of alienation in the selected works of María Luisa Bombal, Juan Carlos Onetti, and Alejo Carpentier. Begins with the brief theoretical discussion and continues with analytical reading.
Alonso, Carlos. The Burden of Modernity: The Rhetoric of Cultural Discourse in Spanish America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
An informed and theoretical discussion of rhetoric, cultural discourse, modernity, and related subjects in a selection of major Latin American texts.
Ainsa, Fernando. Identidad cultural de iberoamérica en su narrativa. Madrid: Gredos, 1986.
A study of Latin American identity as it appears in fiction in each region, the author argues that Latin America’s diverse nations share a common culture.
Aldama, Frederick Luis. Postethnic Narrative Criticism: Magicorealism in Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, Ana Castillo, Julie Dash, Hanif Kureishi, and Salman Rushdie. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.
A bold approach to magical realism in U.S. Latino and British postcolonial novel and film. Offers both theoretical breadth and depth of reading individual texts by the authors in the title.
Arias, Arturo. Gestos ceremoniales: narrativa centroamericana 1960–1990. Guatemala: Artemis-Edinter, 1998.
A well-informed study of nine representative authors of the period from 1960 to 1980, with emphasis on the sociohistorical context.
———La identidad de la palabra: narrativa guatemalteca a la luz del Siglo Veinte. Guatemala: Artemis-Edinter, 1998.
A well-informed critical anlaysis of the twentieth-century Guatemalan novel, taking into account recent theory and self-searching on the part of the critic as writer.
Balderston, Daniel, ed. The Historical Novel in Latin America: A Symposium. Gaithersburg, MD: Hispamérica, 1986.
A volume of articles written in English and Spanish originally presented at a 1985 symposium of the historical novel. Studies of topics, authors, and novels.
Benedetti, Mario. El recurso del supremo patriarca. México: Nueva Imagen, 1979.
Critical essays on Carpentier, Roa Bastos, García Márquez, original approach to the works of these writers. Benedetti writes as an intellectual and fiction writer, rather than strictly a scholar.
Beverley, John and Marc Zimmerman. Literature and Politics in the Central American Revolutions. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990
A discussion of Central American literature as a struggle for national liberation.
Biron, Rebecca E. Murder and Masculinity: Violent Fictions of Twentieth-Century Latin America. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press: 2000.
An exploration of masculinity in A maçã no escuro (Lispector), The Buenos Aires Affair (Puig), and El asalto (Arenas), in addition to some short fiction.
Blanco Aguinaga, Carlos. De mitólogos y novelistas. Madrid: Turner, 1975.
Five essays written between 1968 and 1977 concerning the relationship between literature and history in new novel in Latin America, including books by Octavio Paz, García Márquez, Alejo Carpentier, and Carlos Fuentes.
Borinsky, Alicia. Theoretical Fables: The Pedagogical Dream in Contemporary Latin American Literature. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
Informed and insightful discussions of major writers of Spanish America, including Borges, Cortázar, García Márquez.
Bruce-Novoa, Juan. Retrospace: Collected Essays on Chicano Literature. Houston: Arte Público, 1990.
A set of fourteen informed and insightful essays on Chicano literature, including comparisons with Mexican literature. Bruce-Novoa enters into several polemical terrains with respect to literary criticism and, specifically, the critique of Chicano literature.
Camayd-Freixas, Erik, and José Eduardo González, eds. Primitivism and Identity in Latin America: Essays on Art, Literature, and Culture. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2000.
Essays on the notion of primitivism and its implications in contemporary Latin American society, art, and literature. Includes writers such as Julio Cortázar and Rómulo Gallegos.
Chamberlain, Bobby J., ed. The City in the Latin American Novel. Michigan State University, 1980.
A volume of articles presented in at the 1979 annual meeting of the MALAS, held at Michigan State University in 1979. Papers are divided into categories that deal with Buenos Aires, Lima, and Brazilian cities and include studies of the theme of the city in works by Mario Vargas Llosa, Graciliano Ramos, Jorge Amado, and others.
Conte, Rafael. Lenguaje y violencia. Madrid: AL-Borak, 1972.
An exploration of the phenomenon of the new novel in Latin America, including its origins and influences, context and precursors, general tendencies. The focus on the works by specific writers, such as Miguel Ángel Asturias, Alejo Carpentier, Juan Rulfo, and Juan Carlos Onetti, with analysis of language and violence.
Craft, Linda J. Novels of Testimony and Resistance from Central America. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997.
Includes chapters on novels by Arturo Arias of Guatemala, Claribel Alegría and Manlio Argueta of El Salvador, and Giaconda Belli of Nicaragua. While formulating a theory of the Central American testimonial novel, Craft argues that the main function of such novels is to provide a voice for the underrepresented.
Dorfman, Ariel. Imaginación y violencia en América. Santiago de Chile: Universitaria, 1970.
A classic and thought-provoking look at violence and its role in Latin American literature.
———Some Write to the Future: Essays on Contemporary Latin American Fiction. Trans. George Shivers and Ariel Dorfman. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991.
A collection of essays dealing with genres, specific works, or authors. The main focus is reader participation in contemporary Latin American fiction.
Eltit, Diamela. Emergencias: escritos sobre literatura, arte y política. Edited and with a prologue by Leonidas Morales T. Santiago: Planeta/Ariel, 2000.
Well-argued and carefully construed essays on topics such as gender, power, feminism, visual arts, and democracy in Latin America.
Favre, Isabelle. La Différrance Francophone. New Orleans: Presses Universitaires du Nouveau Monde, 2001.
Well-informed analysis of several French Caribbean writers in the larger context of Francophone writing.
Fernández Retamar, Alberto. Ensayo de otro mundo. Santiago: Universitaria, 1969.
An examination of the concept of development as well as the struggle to forge a national identity.
García Márquez, Gabriel, and Mario Vargas Llosa. Diálogo sobre la novela Latinoamericana. Lima: Perú-Andino, 1988.
A transcript of a conversation between the two authors in 1967, including a speech by García Márquez entitled “La Soledad de América Latina.” The issues explored include the purpose of literature, the characteristics of a good literary work, the definition of a novelist, as well as personal influences.
González, Aníbel. Killer Books: Writing, Violence, and Ethics in Modern Spanish American Narrative. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.
An informed and insightful discussion of the persistence of graphophobia, or the fear of writing, in Latin American fiction. The author also analyzes the ethical difficulties and the love-hate relationship between writers and writing, emphasizing the exposition of many forms of abuse in the contemporary narrative. Valuable readings of Cortázar, Borges, Carpentier, as well as discussion of important writers of the pre-1945 period.
González, Eduardo. The Monstered Self: Narratives of Death and Performance in Latin American Fiction. Durham: Duke University Press, 1992.
An analysis the importance of death in Latin American fiction, addressing both the short story and the novel. González emphasizes the equal importance of life and death in fiction and considers the performance aspect of the latter. The writers analyzed include Borges and Vargas Llosa.
Guibert, Rita. Seven Voices. New York: Knopf, 1972.
This useful book consists of conversations with seven Latin American writers: Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Octavio Paz, Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and Guillermo Cabrera Infante.
Harss, Luis, and Barbara Dahmann. Into the Mainstream: Conversations with Latin American Writers. New York: Harper, 1966.
This is a very useful book that examines prominent authors and how their life experiences affect their works. Authors include Miguel Angel Asturias and his concern for the disenfranchised, Julio Cortázar’s confrontation with the realities of modernity, and Carlos Fuentes’s concern for the power struggles within postrevolutionary Mexico.
Herrera-Sobek, María, ed. Reconstructing a Chicano/a Literary Heritage. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1993.
Essays on early colonial Hispanic literature in the southwestern region of the United States by major scholars of Chicano literature, including Herrera-Sobek, Juan Bruce-Novoa, Tino Villanueva, Ramón Gutiérrez, Francisco Lomelí, and Luis Leal.
Hoeg, Jerry. Science, Technology, and Latin American Narrative in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 2000.
This book explains the importance of science and technology in Latin American literature. Works include One Hundred Years of Solitude, The House of the Spirits, Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, Like Water for Chocolate, and Única mirando al mar.
Juan-Navarro, Santiago. Archival Reflections: Postmodern Fiction of the Americas (Self Reflexivity, Historical Revisionism, Utopia). Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2000.
A thought-provoking discussion of the postmodern aspects of historical fiction of the United States and Latin America written in the 1970s. Authors include Carlos Fuentes, Ishmael Reed, Julio Cortázar, and E. L. Doctorow.
Kadir, Djelal. Questing Fictions: Latin America’s Family Romance. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986.
A study of pertinent texts and, specifically, how they are direct responses to the historical, social, and cultural conditions and bias under which they are produced. Most of the discussions are based on readings in theory and philosophy.
Kulin, Katalin. Modern Latin American Fiction: A Return to Didacticism. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1988.
This book belongs to a series entitled Studies in Modern Philology and explores the works of Rulfo, Onetti, García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, and Cortázar, analyzing each author’s image of the world. The author discusses how Latin America’s unique social and political history has prevented what was believed to be the inevitable death of the novel. Specifically discussed are myth, narratology, setting, nature, chronology.
Libertella, Héctor. Nueva escritura en Latinoamérica. Caracas: Monte Ávila, 1977.
An analysis of the phenomenon of the new literature in Latin America. The writer examines factors, such as tradition, language, and particularities of the continent and its history, that influence the literature. The last chapter is dedicated to analysis of novels by writers such as Osvaldo Lamborghini, Salvador Elizondo, Severo Sarduy, and Manuel Puig.
MacAdam, Alfred J. Modern Latin American Narratives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
An examination of a number of modern Latin American narratives, including novels by Julio Cortázar, João Guimarães Rosa, Gabriel García Márquez, and Juan Rulfo.
McCracken, Ellen. The Feminine Space of New Latina Narrative. Tempe: University of Arizona Press, 1999.
Well-informed readings of recent Latina narrative, with emphasis on subjects such as postmodern ethnicity, collective narration of history, and transgressive narrative tactics.
Menton, Seymour. Latin America’s New Historical Novel. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.
A study of Latin American historic novels published between 1979 and 1992. Menton’s basis of analysis is that of periodization rather than motifs, country, or theory. He seeks to distinguish the presentation of the themes (such as war, power, imperialism, subversion, exile, and religion) and techniques of these novels from previous historical novels.
Miller, Yvette E., and Charles M. Tatum, eds. Latin American Women Writers: Yesterday and Today. Pittsburgh: Latin American Literary Review Press, 1977.
A collection of criticism on literature from Latin America (poetry, narrative), originally presented at a conference on women writers. Most of the essays are detailed exploration of the works of women writers such as Ronni Gordon Stillman, Elena Poniatowska, María Angélica Bosco, Beatriz Guido, Silvina Bullrich, and others. A pioneering volume in the area of women’s writing in Latin America.
Minc, Rose S., ed. Literature and Popular Culture in the Hispanic World: A Symposium. Gaithersburg, MD: Hispamérica, 1981.
This volume combines the critical works on Latin American literature that were presented in a conference at Montclair State College in 1981. Includes essays on Puig, Arlt, and Luis Rafael Sánchez.
Nagel, Susan. The Influence of the Novels of Jean Giraudoux on the Hispanic Vanguard Novels of the 1920s–1930s. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1991.
An examination of the influence of Jean Giraudoux on the Latin American vanguardist novel of the 1920s and 1930s. Nagel cites many of his innovations, such as reader participation, the importance of the creative process, metalepsis, ellipsis, decharacterization, pneumatic metaphor, metafiction, all of which have been employed by vanguardist novelists in Spanish America. The often-ignored Latin American works examined include Víspera del gozo by Pedro Salinas, Cuentos para una iglesia desesperada by Eduardo Mallea, and Novela como nube by Gilberto Owen.
Patai, Daphne. Myth and Ideology in Contemporary Brazilian Fiction. London: Associated University Presses, 1983.
Analytical essays on major Brazilian writers, including Mary Alice Barroso, Clarice Lispector, Jorge Amado, Carlos Heitor Cony, Adonias Filho and Autran Dourado.
Peavler, Terry J., and Peter Standish, eds. Structures of Power: Essays of Twentieth-Century Spanish-American Fiction. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.
A collection of essays that address issues of hegemony and power with regard to politics, social issues, religion, economics, gender, and sexual orientation in Latin American fiction. Authors studied include José Donoso, Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, Macedonio Fernández, Augusto Roa Bastos, Juan Rulfo, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Alejandra Pizarnik, and Luisa Valenzuela.
Rama, Angel. La riesgosa navegación del escritor exiliado. Montevideo: Arca, 1993.
A compilation of essays about various novels and novelists, including La hojarasca by Gabriel García Márquez, Puig, Fuentes, Donoso, Cortázar, Carpentier, and La guerra del fin del mundo by Mario Vargas Llosa. He also discusses the vanguardist movement in Latin America in general, the Mexican narrative, modernity as expressed in literature, exile, as well as censorship and its effect on self-expression.
Randall, Margaret. Risking a Somersault in the Air: Conversations with Nicaraguan Writers. San Francisco: Solidarity, 1984.
Interviews with fourteen Nicaraguan writers, including Sergio Ramírez and Giaconda Belli. Includes poets and novelists.
Rodríguez, Ileana. Women, Guerrillas, and Love: Understanding War in Central America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
Offers a reading of politically committed texts by such authors as Sergio Ramírez and Arturo Arias. Within a political context it explores topics of gender, sexuality, and feminism.
Rodríguez-Alcalá, Hugo. Narrativa Hispanoamericana. Madrid: Gredos, 1973.
Nine critical essays on the Latin American narrative. Seven of the essays are dedicated to the short narrative and discuss stories by Carpentier, Roa Bastos, and Rulfo. The last essay investigates seventy years of the Paraguayan narrative, with emphasis on the work of Roa Bastos.
Rodríguez Monegal, Emir. El arte de narrar—Diálogos. Caracas: Monte Avila, 1968.
The author narrates interviews he has conducted with celebrated authors and other artists, such as Cabrera Infante, Fuentes, Sarduy, Sáinz, Beatriz Guido, and Juan Goytisolo. Cabrera Infante discusses how orality converts the horizontal language of the mundane into the vertical language of literature without losing its validity. Fuentes, however, seems more concerned with the explosive power of language as well as the cannibalism of Mexican cultural life.
———El Boom de la novela latinoamericana. Caracas, Venezuela: Tiempo Nuevo, 1972.
A study of the phenomenon of the Boom in Latin American literature, which includes discussion of origins, development, and national and international interests.
Saldívar, José David. Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Well-informed and theoretically sophisticated reconsideration of Chicano culture, including literature.
———The Dialectics of Our America: Genealogy, Cultural Critique, and Literary History. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.
A comparative analysis of writing on both sides of the border, including a proposal for a “pan-American” literary tradition.
Saldívar, Ramón. Chicano Narrative: The Dialectics of Difference. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
An incisive analysis of Chicano narrative, with a strong historical introduction and deft use of theory.
Schwartz, Marcy E. Writing Paris: Urban Topographies of Desire in Contemporary Latin American Fiction. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.
An examination of the role of Paris as a setting for many contemporary Latin American novels. Focus on Rayuela by Julio Cortázar (among his other novels), La danza inmóvil by Manuel Scorza, and La vida exagerada de Martín Romaña and El hombre que hablaba de Octavia de Cádiz, both by Alfredo Bryce Echenique.
Schwartz, Ronald. Nomads, Exiles, and Emigres: The Rebirth of the Latin American Narrative, 1960–80. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1980.
An examination of ten major contemporary authors whose novels have been translated into English. Among the writers presented are Carpentier, Cortázar, Lezama Lima, García Márquez, and Vargas Llosa.
Simpson, Amelia S. Detective Fiction from Latin America. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990.
A study of the development of detective fiction in Latin America, a genre often ignored. Simpson begins with an outline of the emergence of the detective novel in the nineteenth century and follows with an analysis of the phenomenon in the region, focusing specifically on the River Plate, Brazil, Mexico, and Cuba, the principal settings of such works. Simpson additionally conducts a comparison between Latin American detective novels and those of the United States, much more popular in Spanish America than those produced in the region. She notes that the Latin American works address moral, social, and political issues, while North American detective novels tend to be more superficial, devoid of ideological or societal implications.
Souza, Raymond D. La historia en la novela hispanoamericana moderna. Bogotá: Tercer Mundo, 1988.
In this book Souza emphasizes that the theme of the past and the desire to understand and/or explain it is rampant in the Latin American novel, a phenomenon that started in the first novels of the region, shortly after the conquest. The search for the past in literature represents, according to Souza, a search for national and personal identity. He specifically focuses on historical novels written between 1961 and 1984, emphasizing the works of Alejo Carpentier, José Lezama Lima, Mario Vargas Llosa, Ernesto Sábato, Mariano Azuela, Carlos Fuentes, and Gustavo Alvarez Gardeazábal.
Tittler, Jonathan. Violencia y literatura en Colombia. Madrid: Orígenes, 1989.
Selected essays from an international conference on violence and literature in Colombia, these pieces, written by specialists on Colombian literature, offer solid insights into the topic at hand.
Vidal, Hernán. Literatura Hispano-Americana e ideología liberal: Surgimiento y crisis (Una problemática sobre la dependencia en torno a la narrativa del Boom). Buenos Aires: Hispamérica, 1976.
A study of Latin American literature as a manifestation of Latin American economic dependence and the sociopolitical praxis of certain classes and groups within this framework. The author focuses especially on the possible definitions of literary discourse as liberal ideology.
Volek, Emil. Cuatro claves para la modernidad: Análisis semiótico de textos hispánicos. Madrid: Gredos, 1984.
The author analyzes literary texts as representations of the phenomenon of modernity. The discussion includes works by Borges, Carpentier, and Cabrera Infante.
Williams, Raymond L. The Postmodern Novel in Latin America. New York: St. Martin’s, 1995.
Analysis of postmodern fictions of the 1970s and 1980s.
Studies on Individual Authors of Latin America and the Caribbean
Jorge Amado
Chamberlain, Bobby. Jorge Amado. Boston: Twayne, 1984.
General introduction to Amado’s fiction, with brief biography.
Miguel Ángel Asturias
Bellini, Giuseppe. La narrativa de Miguel Ángel Asturias. Buenos Aires: Losada, 1969.
A critical discussion of the fiction of Asturias, with chapters on dictatorship, myth, and reality, banana plantation settings, and social protest.
Callan, Richard. Miguel Ángel Asturias. New York: Twayne, 1970.
A clear and informed introductory study to the life and works of Miguel Ángel Asturias, including chapters on his major novels and other works.
Couffon, Claude. Miguel Ángel Asturias. Paris: Seghers, 1970.
A critical study of Miguel Ángel Asturias, written in French, with biography. Includes a selection of translated poems and a chronology of Asturias’s life and works.
Prieto, René. Miguel Ángel Asturias’s Archaeology of Return. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Emphasizes the originality and aesthetic value of Leyendas de Guatemala, Hombres de maíz, and Mulata de tal. Argues against Asturias’s assertion that the sole function of a Latin American novelist is to portray political and social realities.
Sáenz, Jimena. Genio y figura de Miguel Ángel Asturias. Buenos Aires: Universitaria, 1974.
Biography and criticism. Ten chapters. Includes bibliography of Asturias’s first editions, translations done by him, and limited critical bibliography.
Chico Buarque
Zappa, Regina. Chico Buarque. Rio de Janeiro: Relume Dumará, 1999
Informed and useful introduction to the life and work of this multitalented Brazilian musician and writer.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
Souza, Raymond D. Guillermo Cabrera Infante: Two Islands, Many Worlds. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.
Well-informed biographical introduction and analysis of fiction.
Antônio Callado
Moraes, Ligia Chiappini. Quando a patria viaja: uma leitura dos romances de Antônio Callado. Havana: Casa de las Américas, 1983.
Informed and insightful essays on the complete fiction of Callado published up to the early 1980s.
This book was awarded the prestigious Casa de las Americas prize for essay.
Alejo Carpentier
González Echevarría, Roberto. Alejo Carpentier: The Pilgrim at Home. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977.
A seminal study for an understanding of Carpentier and modern Latin American literature.
Rosario Castellanos
O’Connell, Joanna. Prospero’s Daughter: The Prose of Rosario Castellanos. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
Reading and analysis of the complete work of Castellanos.
Julio Cortázar
Boldy, Stephen. The Novels of Julio Cortázar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
An introduction to the novels of Cortázar.
Carlos Fuentes
Van Deldon, Maarten. Carlos Fuentes, Mexico and Modernity. Nasheville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1998.
Well-argued study of modernity in the fiction of Fuentes.
Williams, Raymond L. The Writings of Carlos Fuentes. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.
Analysis of the writings of Fuentes, preceded by a biographical introduction.
Gabriel García Márquez
Minta, Stephen. Gabriel García Márquez. New York: Harper and Row, 1987.
Introduction to the writer and his context.
Ortega, Julio, Editor. Gabriel García Márquez and the Powers of Fiction. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988.
Insightful essays on the Colombian writer.
Williams, Raymond L. Gabriel García Márquez. Boston: Twayne, 1984.
Introduction to the Colombian writer’s work.
Elena Garro
Stoll, Anita K. Studies on the Work of Elena Garro. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1990.
A compilation of fourteen valuable essays on the work of Mexican writer Elena Garro. Authors include Catharine Larson, Vicky Unruh, and Beth Miller. Analysis of marginality and alienation in the complete work of this Mexican writer.
Rolando Hinojosa
Saldívar, José David, Editor The Rolando Hinojosa Reader: Essays Historical and Critical. Houston: Arte Público, 1985.
Essays by established scholars on a variety of topics in the writings of Rolando Hinojosa.
Clarice Lispector
Alonso, Cláudia Pazos, and Claire Williams, Editors. Closer to the Wild Heart: Essays on Clarice Lispector. Oxford: European Humanities Research Centre, 2002.
A volume of twelve informed and well-conceived essays on the individual works of Clarice Lispector as well as topics relating to several works. Topics include gender, class, race, nation, and autobiography.
Rigoberta Menchú
Arias, Arturo, ed. The Rigoberta Menchú Controversy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
A set of polemical essays on the Guatemalan writer and activitist.
Miguel Méndez
Keller, Gary D., Editor. Miguel Méndez in Aztlán. Tempe: Bilingual, 1995.
Useful companion to the reading of Miguel Méndez, this volume contains biographical overviews, critical readings, and bibliography. Contributors include David W. Foster, Luis Leal, Francisco Lomelí, Charles Tatum, and Miguel Méndez himself.
Manuel Puig
Kerr, Lucille. Suspended Fictions: Reading the Novels of Manuel Puig. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.
Insightful and lucid readings of Puig.
Levine, Suzanne Jill. Manuel Puig and the Spider Woman: His Life and Fictions. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000.
A comprehensive and thorough biography of the Argentine writer.
Joâo Guimarâes Rosa
Vincent, Jon. Joâo Guimarâes Rosa. Boston: Twayne, 1978.
Introductory readings to the Brazilian master’s fiction.
Juan Rulfo
Leal, Luis. Juan Rulfo. Boston: Twayne, 1983.
A complete study of Juan Rulfo’s life and work.
Mario Vargas Llosa
Kristal, Efraín. Temptation of the Word: The Novels of Mario Vargas Llosa. Nasheville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1998.
Informed and lucid readings of Vargas Llosa.
Oviedo, José Miguel. Mario Vargas Llosa: la invención de una realidad. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1972.
Key readings by an insider of Vargas Llosa’s life and writing.
Williams, Raymond L. Mario Vargas Llosa. New York: Ungar, 1972.
Introductory analysis on the novels of Vargas Llosa.