Latin America's New Historical Novel
Beginning with the 1979 publication of Alejo Carpentier's El arpa y la sombra, the New Historical Novel has become the dominant genre within Latin American fiction. In this at-times tongue-in-cheek postmodern study, Seymour Menton explores why the New Historical Novel has achieved such popularity and offers discerning readings of numerous works.
Menton argues persuasively that the proximity of the Columbus Quincentennial triggered the rise of the New Historical Novel. After defining the historical novel in general, he identifies the distinguishing features of the New Historical Novel.
Individual chapters delve deeply into such major works as Mario Vargas Llosa's La guerra del fin del mundo, Abel Posse's Los perros del paraíso, Gabriel García Márquez's El general en su laberinto, and Carlos Fuentes' La campaña. A chapter on the Jewish Latin American novel focuses on several works that deserve greater recognition, such as Pedro Orgambide's Aventuras de Edmund Ziller en tierras del Nuevo Mundo, Moacyr Scliar's A estranha nação de Rafael Mendes, and Angelina Muñiz's Tierra adentro.
Seymour Menton has produced not only a scholarly, engaging, and very readable study of the 'new historical novel' but also a fresh and comprehensive overview of the contemporary Latin American novel in general. . . . Original in scope and perspective, eloquent in presentation, this volume would be a valuable and significant addition to any Latin Americanist's library.
Scholars and students of contemporary Latin American narrative will be made aware of recent fiction not yet discussed in English-language criticism or, for that matter, at any length in Spanish-language criticism. Menton opens up a significant new area for further critical inquiry.
Irvine.
- Acknowledgments
- Prependix: Chronology of the Latin American Historical Novel, 1949–1992
- 1. Latin America’s New Historical Novel
- Definitions and Origins
- 2. Mario Vargas Llosa’s War on Fanaticism
- La guerra del fin del mundo, with a Coda on José J. Veiga’s A casca da serpente
- 3. Abel Posse’s Denunciation of Power
- Los perros del paraíso
- 4. The Instant Canonization of a Bakhtinian Symphony
- Fernando del Paso’s Noticias del imperio
- 5. The Bolívar Quartette, or Varieties of Historical Fiction
- Gabriel García Márquez’s El general en su laberinto
- Fernando Cruz Kronfly’s La ceniza del Libertador
- Alvaro Mutis’s “El último rostro”
- Germán Espinosa’s Sinfonía desde el Nuevo Mundo
- 6. Bending the Rules, or The Art of Subversion
- Ricardo Piglia’s Respiración artificial
- 7. Over Two Thousand Years of Exile and Marginality—The Jewish Latin American Historical Novel
- Pedro Orgambide’s Aventuras de Edmund Ziller en tierras del nuevo mundo
- Moacyr Scliar’s A estranha nação de Rafael Mendes
- Homero Aridjis’s 1492: Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla Angelina Muñiz’s Tierra adentro
- 8. La campaña by Carlos Fuentes
- Crónica de una guerra denunciada, or Chronicle of a War Retold
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
