Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003

Abstract

Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003 edited by Daniel Balderston and Mike Gonzalez is reviewed.

RR 2004/434 Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003 Edited by Daniel Balderston and Mike Gonzalez Routledge London 2004 xxxiv + 666 pp. ISBN 0 415 30686 8 (hbk); ISBN 0 415 30687 6 (pbk) £120 $160 (hbk); $40 (pbk)

Keywords Literature, Caribbean, Latin America

Review DOI 10.1108/09504120410565783

The curious reader may be forgiven for wondering why the editors of the present volume have chosen to publish an encyclopedia covering the literature of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Latin America together with that of its English, French and Dutch-speaking Caribbean neighbours' given the different literary traditions of individual countries of the area. Apart from the obvious geographical proximity, however, the literatures of the region all draw on the literary traditions and styles introduced by their colonial masters. As the editors point out in their introduction, the political upheavals of Latin America in the twentieth century left a unique literary style in the literature of the continent's nations. With such considerations in mind Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits and V. S. Naipaul's House for Mr Biswas seem less like strange bedfellows. Readers will find in this volume a wealth of useful information not readily available in a single source on the literary figures and styles of both South America and the neighbouring Caribbean islands.

In the UK a number of universities began offering specialist courses in Latin American literature in the post-war period. Interest in the subject was further enhanced by the creation of centres for the study and teaching of Latin American literature. Caribbean literature in English also achieved recognition as a subject worthy of university study and teaching at this time. Latin American literature, however, may be said to have come of age with the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Gabriel Garcia Marquez for his Cien Anos de Soledad in 1982. The subsequent popularity of the novels of Isabel Allende has done much to focus public interest on other writers from the South American continent, especially the poet Pablo Neruda, his successor Carlos Castro Saavedra, the essayist Jorge Luis Borges and the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa.

Editors of the present volume are Daniel Balderston of the University of Iowa and Mike Gonzalez of the University of Glasgow. The 190 contributors are drawn from a variety of academic institutions in the USA, the UK, Latin America and Spain. A useful 15-page chronology sets the publication of important literary works in the context of the significant political events of the time. Thus we read, "1898 Cuba achieves independence from Spain - Mario Vargas Vila Flor de Fango", "1923 Pancho Villa assassinated - Pablo Neruda Crepusculario; Jorge Luis Borges Fervor de Buenos Aires" and "1967 Death of Che Guevara - Founding of Caribbean Artists Movement".

The timescale of the present volume enables the editors to include Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario (b. 1867), his protégé Dario Herrera (b. 1870), chronicler of the Mexican revolution, Martin Luis Guzman (b. 1887) and many others whose works heralded the introduction of the modernisme movement in the early years of the twentieth century. Without such notable figures the encyclopedia would have been sadly incomplete.

The work contains more than 1,200 alphabetically arranged entries covering authors, critics, major works, magazines, genres and movements. As well as individual authors the wide range of articles include references to books and journals such as the Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys' masterly novel about the Creole Mrs Rochester in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre) and Kyk-Over-Al (an annual literary magazine founded in 1945 in British Guiana), to movements such as the Grupo de Barranquilla, and to literary genres such as Costumbrismo. Some articles offer little more than a brief introduction to an individual topic. However, readers are well served by the useful lists of further reading which accompany many articles. One wonders on what little basis literary works were selected for separate treatment given the omission of any separate article on Allende's La Casa de los Espiritus. Layout of the individual entries is exceptionally clear and readers are referred to related articles by the use of keywords in bold typeface. The encyclopedia is completed by a sixpage bibliography and an excellent index. The editors are to be congratulated on a volume that is easy to use, up to date and a mine of information not easily found elsewhere in a single source.

Although one suspects students of Latin American literature are unlikely to be interested in Caribbean literature, and vice versa, at £120 for the hardback edition this volume is clearly aimed at the academic library where the study and teaching of the various literatures should ensure it a place in the general academic as well as the departmental library. The volume brings together in handy format a range of information scattered throughout a variety of sources. It deserves a place too on the shelves of the reference library aiming to offer a comprehensive range of materials for the study of comparative literature.