The Columbia Guide to the Latin American Novel Since 1945

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.

Raymond Leslie Williams is a professor of Latin American literature at the University of California, Riverside, where he has served as graduate adviser, chair, and dean. He specializes in modern Latin American fiction, with particular interest in the literatures of Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. He has been Fulbright Scholar in Colombia, and his publications focus on the writings of Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Gabriel García Márquez, as well as the literature of Colombia.
Raymond Williams is professor of Latin American literature at UC-Riverside and author of The Postmodern Novel in Latin America: Politics, Culture, and the Crisis of Truth (St. Martin's, 1997); The Modern Latin American Novel (Twayne, 1998); and The 20th Century Spanish American Novel: A Critical History (Univ. of Texas Press, 2003).

Peter Wellburn:
This volume deserves a place in the libraries of institutions where Latin American literature forms part of the curriculum.