Literature, 1900 to the Present Day
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Literature, 1900 to the Present Day Victoria Carpenter University of Bedfordshire 1 General Focusing on the historical novels of Isabel Allende, Antonio Benítez-Rojo, Carmen Boul- Caroline Houde, El imaginario colombino: ego- losa, Ariel Dorfman, Sergio Galindo, Augusto escritura, creación literaria y memoria histó- Roa Bastos, Fernando del Paso, Mayra Santos- rica en Carpentier, Posse y Roa Bastos, Buenos Febres, Marcela Serrano, Sara Sefchovich, Luisa Aires, Biblos, 252 pp., examines the narratives Valenzuela, and Mario Vargas Llosa, the study of Columbus’s arrival in Americas, consider- brings together multidisciplinary perspectives ing the works of Alejo Carpentier, Abel Posse, on social justice and interrogates the role mas- and Augusto Roa Bastos from Bourdieu’s socio- querade, disguise, and subversion play in the critical perspective. The volume opens with a social justice discourse. detailed review of the critiques of NNH (nueva Alejandro José López, El arte de la novela novela histórica), and proceeds to examine the en el post-boom latinoamericano, Cali, Univer- ‘polyphonic history’ (42) of Columbus’s travels. sidad del Valle, 165 pp., establishes a theoretical Manifiestos … de manifiesto: provocación, framework of the post-Boom by comparing and memoria y arte en el género-síntoma de las van- complementing it with the existing perspect- guardias literarias hispanoamericanas, 1896– ives on the Boom—the process riddled with 1938, ed. Osmar Sánchez Aguilera, Mexico City, conceptual and contextual obstacles.The three Bonilla Artigas, 216 pp., interrogates the nature writers whose work is chosen as an example of of the manifesto in Latin American literature, the post-Boom are Manuel Puig, Antonio Skár- with a focus on the avant-garde. The study meta, and Ángeles Mastretta. This strangely aims to define the common features of the eclectic selection is bound by the considera- manifesto—fragmentation, resistance to adapt tion of the common themes of love, betrayal, distinct literary forms, openness to traversing and subversion of their mainstream portrayal. boundaries of styles and text forms, and gen- Esto no es un injerto: Ensayos sobre her- eral fluidity of the text—and apply these to menéutica y barroco en América Latina, ed. the analysis of the works of the Latin Amer- Adrián Bertorello and María José Rossi, Buenos ican avant-garde. The scope of the collection Aires, Miño y Dávila, 295 pp., offers a num- ranges from the late 19th century to the present ber of essays which apply the hermeneut- day, and the essays explore the writings of ics theory and methodology to the analyses some very well-known writers (Vicente Hui- of the fragmented or lost subjects, Baroque dobro, Teresa de la Parra, Braulio Arenas, and literary forms, and the conflict of realities. Octavio Paz, among others) and some less While most essays focus on the Colonial era well-known names (Enrique Gómez-Correa, texts or present mainly theoretical musings Manuel Maples Arce, and Aldo Pellegrini, to on the topic, the following chapters would name but a few). be of interest to scholars of 20th-c. literat- Helene Carol Weldt-Basson, Masquerade ure: Lucas Bidon-Chanal, ‘“Un oasis de hor- and Social Justice in Contemporary Latin Amer- ror en medio de un desierto de aburrimien- ican Fiction, Albuquerque, New Mexico U.P., to”. Roberto Bolaño y una novela alegórica’ ix + 226 pp., examines the narratives deal- (181–210); Maritza M. Buendía, ‘Muñeca y me- ing with trauma, stigma, and social justice. lancolía como pathos barroco en Juan Gar- © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi: 10.1163/22224297-07901018 310 spanish-americanstudies cía Ponce y Alejandra Pizarnik’ (251–266); and Dabove, Bandit Narratives in Latin America: Adrián Bertorello, ‘El mundo de lo real mara- From Villa to Chávez, Pittsburgh U.P., xxv + 397 villoso: hacia una hermenéutica de la función pp., which explores the character of the bandit significante’ (267–292), a close reading of the in fictional and non-fictional works, drawing way space, place, reality, and identity are nego- on a variety of texts, including testimonios, his- tiated in Alejo Carpentier’s Los pasos perdidos. torical novels, and short stories. Some choices Fragmentation of space and place is at the of texts and authors are self-explanatory (e.g. centre of Francisco Brignole, ‘Voluntary Exiles, Carlos Fuentes and Juan Rulfo); others reveal New Identities, and the Emergence of a Postna- more tenuous connections to the principal tional Sensibility in Contemporary Latin Amer- topic (e.g. Jorge Luis Borges, Ricardo Piglia and ican Literature’, pp. 128–146 of Postnational José Revueltas). Perspectives on Contemporary Hispanic Liter- ature, ed. Heike Scharm and Natalia Matta- Jara, Gainesville, Florida U.P., ix + 227 pp. This 2 Chicana Literature analysis explores the notion of voluntary exile as a postnational phenomenon, juxtaposing it Robert Con Davis–Undiano, Mestizos Come with the familiar (and rather over-analysed) Home!Making andClaiming MexicanAmerican view of Latin American exile literature focus- Identity, Norman, Oklahoma U.P., xxi + 311 pp., ing on political exile as a negative experience addresses the relationship between Mesoamer- which undermines one’s identity. The works ican and European perspectives on race, eth- of Mario Vargas Llosa, Santiago Gamboa, and nicity, and human body, aiming to define the Claudio Ferrufino-Coqueugniot consider vol- impact of Mexican American culture in all untary exile as a means of self-discovery, the its shapes—Chicano, Mestizo, and Latino— study argues, without sliding into an unneces- upon the United States today. The study reads sarily optimistic view of the process. the works of Tomás Rivera, Richard Rodrig- Norman Valencia, Retóricas del poder y uez, Rodolfo Anaya, Gloria Anzaldúa, and oth- nombres del padre en la literatura latinoameri- ers as transcultural and transtextual spaces cana: paternalismo, política y forma literaria en where Mexican American cultural identity is Graciliano Ramos, Juan Rulfo, Joao Guimaraes constructed and deconstructed in a continu- Rosa y José Lezama Lima, Madrid, Iberoameri- ous cyclical process. The theme of Chicana cana—Frankfurt, Vervuert, 361 pp., is a com- identity is the subject of Belinda Linn Rincón, parative reading of the representation of pat- ‘Home/Land Insecurity, Or, Un Desmadre en riarchal power and the figure of the father in Aztlán: Virginia Grise’s Blu’, MFS, 63:247–269, various forms (familiar, religious, and meta- in which neoliberal militarist practices of physical), drawing inevitable parallels with the negotiating space are examined by bringing colonial and postcolonial discourses of power together apparently disparate objects (body, and powerlessness. Section 3 of the first part, barrio, homeland, nation, etc.) and revealing ‘“No se te olvide el don”: Pedro Páramo, totem concentric patterns created by the interaction y tabú comalense’, examines the authority of of these objects. the father figure in Juan Rulfo’s novel, draw- Spanish Perspectives on Chicano Literature: ing upon the notion of the uncertainty of indi- Literary and Cultural Essays, ed. Jesús Ro- vidual experiences: the father in Pedro Páramo sales and Vanessa Fonseca, Columbus, Ohio is both present and absent, in a state of (meta- State U.P., xiii + 190 pp., is a collection of physical) flux. The study calls upon the logic of critical essays addressing cultural and literary myth to decode this uncertainty. The theme of specifics of the Chicano literature from two power and masculinity continues in Juan Pablo perspectives: ‘de acá’ (from within the Amer-.