3 - Narrative since c. 1920

Summary

The last thirty years have seen an extraordinary transformation in Latin American literature, in the recognition it has achieved internationally and in the scholarly resources available for its study. The most ironic aspect of this remarkable cultural phenomenon is that attention has focused precisely on that contemporary period which historians and critics of literature normally tell us must wait until time has passed and critical judgements have sedimented. Thus the New Novel and its euphoric culmination, the ‘Boom’, have received an astonishing amount of concentrated attention – not only from Latin Americanists – while the colonial period and the nineteenth century have languished in relative neglect. B. A. Shaw, Latin American Literature in English Translation (New York, 1976) remains a valuable resource. It can now be supplemented by E. J. Wilson, A to Z of Latin American Literature in English Translation (London, 1991).

bibliographies and dictionaries

Among the most useful bibliographical works are S. M. Bryant, A Selective Bibliography of Bibliographies of Latin American Literature (Austin, Tex., 1976); P. Ward (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature (Oxford, 1978), with good coverage of Spanish American literature despite the title; W. Rela, Guía bibliográfica de la literatura hispanoamericana desde el siglo XIX hasta 1970 (Buenos Aires, 1971); and A. Flores, Bibliografía de escritores hispanoamericanos, 1609–1974 (New York, 1975), a very practical select listing. Indispensable is the remarkable two-volume Panorama historíco-literario de nuestra América, vol. 1, 1900–1943, vol. 2, 1944–1970 (Havana, 1982) which interweaves historical data with literary-cultural entries.