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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...