The Columbia Guide to the Latin American Novel Since 1945

The Columbia Guide to the Latin American Novel Since 1945 is a groundbreaking panoramic study. Raymond Leslie Williams discusses briefly, but with consistency, the most important aspects of each work and places each within a historical context in order to bring the reader's attention to the most important issues and themes of the writers and literary periods. This is also the first time in the literary history of Latin America that an author has included not only works written in Spanish but also works written in Brazilian Portuguese, French, English, Spanglish, and Creole. With this book, Williams breaks through linguistic and cultural barriers among Latin American nations. -- Amarilis Hidalgo de Jesus, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania

Explores the cultural, political, and historical events that have shaped the Latin American and Caribbean novel since the end of World War II. This book covers novels written in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and Haitian Creole, and traces the profound influence of modernization, revolution, and democratization on the writing of this era.In this expertly crafted, richly detailed guide, Raymond Leslie Williams explores the cultural, political, and historical events that have shaped the Latin American and Caribbean novel since the end of World War II. In addition to works originally composed in English, Williams covers novels written in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and Haitian Creole, and traces the profound influence of modernization, revolution, and democratization on the writing of this era. Beginning in 1945, Williams introduces major trends by region, including the Caribbean and U.S. Latino novel, the Mexican and Central American novel, the Andean novel, the Southern Cone novel, and the novel of Brazil. He discusses the rise of the modernist novel in the 1940s, led by Jorge Luis Borges's reaffirmation of the right of invention, and covers the advent of the postmodern generation of the 1990s in Brazil, the Generation of the "Crack" in Mexico, and the McOndo generation in other parts of Latin America. An alphabetical guide offers biographies of authors, coverage of major topics, and brief introductions to individual novels. It also addresses such areas as women's writing, Afro-Latin American writing, and magic realism. The guide's final section includes an annotated bibliography of introductory studies on the Latin American and Caribbean novel, national literary traditions, and the work of individual authors. From early attempts to synthesize postcolonial concerns with modernist aesthetics to the current focus on urban violence and globalization, The Columbia Guide to the Latin American Novel Since 1945 presents a comprehensive, accessible portrait of a thoroughly diverse and complex branch of world literature.