The Latin American Short Story - (Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature) Annotated by Daniel Balderston (Hardcover)

About the Book

The enormous body of short story anthologies from the nineteen countries of Spanish America and Brazil testifies to their importance for writers, editors, readers, and, especially, for schools and universities, teachers and students. The study of anthologies and their contents can be particularly revealing for many of the questions looming large in critical discourse, particularly those on canon formation and the relations between literature and cultural institutions; but researching this corpus is difficult because it varies greatly in quality, distribution, and format. The present volume for the first time gathers this mass of material and organizes it for systematic study.

The main section comprises annotated listings of 1302 short story anthologies: those with stories from all or most of the countries grouped together, including a section of English-language anthologies; those from countries of a region; and those from individual nations. For most entries a full listing of contents is provided along with brief commentary. A second section comprises annotated bibliographies of criticism of the short story, similarly arranged with materials for Latin America as a whole as well as regionally and nationally. The volume ends with four indexes: of authors of the stories; of authors of essays, introductions, and other critical materials; of titles of the critical works; and of themes. An essential tool for scholars working on Latin American narrative, this bibliography will also serve as a practical finding aid for individual writers and stories.

Book Synopsis

The enormous body of short story anthologies from the nineteen countries of Spanish America and Brazil testifies to their importance for writers, editors, readers, and, especially, for schools and universities, teachers and students. The study of anthologies and their contents can be particularly revealing for many of the questions looming large in critical discourse, particularly those on canon formation and the relations between literature and cultural institutions; but researching this corpus is difficult because it varies greatly in quality, distribution, and format. The present volume for the first time gathers this mass of material and organizes it for systematic study.

The main section comprises annotated listings of 1302 short story anthologies: those with stories from all or most of the countries grouped together, including a section of English-language anthologies; those from countries of a region; and those from individual nations. For most entries a full listing of contents is provided along with brief commentary. A second section comprises annotated bibliographies of criticism of the short story, similarly arranged with materials for Latin America as a whole as well as regionally and nationally. The volume ends with four indexes: of authors of the stories; of authors of essays, introductions, and other critical materials; of titles of the critical works; and of themes. An essential tool for scholars working on Latin American narrative, this bibliography will also serve as a practical finding aid for individual writers and stories.

Review Quotes

?[I]nformative and certain to become [a] standard reference work in Latin American literary studies. The lack of investigative tools on the Latin American short story has hindered research in this area for years. The few research tools available to scholars in this field were either surveys of anthologies of individual national literatures or incomplete guides to the larger corpus. Daniel Balderston's The Latin Anerican Short Story: An Annotated Guide to Anthologies and Criticism has now filled this need....Almost all the major works and most of the less-known ones dealing with the short story in Latin America are listed here....Balderston's detailed approach constitutes another strength of this reference work.?-Latin American Research Review

?It will be an essential addition to all Latin American collections. A comprehensive, scholarly work that should help librarians and other researchers in locating a wealth of Latin American writers and their short fiction and criticism about these works. Highly recommended for academic and main public libraries.?-ARBA Reference Book Review

?This excellent work meets the need for a well-indexed bibliography of anthologies of Latin American short stories, Latin America being defined as Spanish America (including the Spanish-speaking Caribbean) and Brazil. The first part, which cites 1,302 anthologies in their original languages (Spanish or Portuguese) or in English translation, lists the authors and story titles in each anthology and provides very brief descriptive annotations. The second part, an annotated bibliography of criticism about the Latin American short story, has 376 entries. Both parts cover Latin America in general, regions, and 20 countries in alphabetical order, but exclude materials devoted to individual authors and to folktales. There are indexes of authors represented in the anthologies, critics, titles of the anthologies (but not individual stories) or critical works, and themes. The well-written introduction, also something of a bibliographic essay, discusses the political, literary, and other roles of anthologies; comments on the selection of stories in anthologies published in the US and Britain; and suggests topics for further research and analysis of short stories. Recommended for all libraries supporting study of Latin American or world literature.?-Choice

?This long-needed guide will greatly facilitate research on the cumbersome body of primary and secondary materials available to scholars of the Latin American short story. Users of this reference tool should be grateful to Balderston for undertaking such a daunting task and producing a volume capable of meeting so many needs.?-World Literature Today

"ÝI¨nformative and certain to become Ýa¨ standard reference work in Latin American literary studies. The lack of investigative tools on the Latin American short story has hindered research in this area for years. The few research tools available to scholars in this field were either surveys of anthologies of individual national literatures or incomplete guides to the larger corpus. Daniel Balderston's The Latin Anerican Short Story: An Annotated Guide to Anthologies and Criticism has now filled this need....Almost all the major works and most of the less-known ones dealing with the short story in Latin America are listed here....Balderston's detailed approach constitutes another strength of this reference work."-Latin American Research Review

"[I]nformative and certain to become [a] standard reference work in Latin American literary studies. The lack of investigative tools on the Latin American short story has hindered research in this area for years. The few research tools available to scholars in this field were either surveys of anthologies of individual national literatures or incomplete guides to the larger corpus. Daniel Balderston's The Latin Anerican Short Story: An Annotated Guide to Anthologies and Criticism has now filled this need....Almost all the major works and most of the less-known ones dealing with the short story in Latin America are listed here....Balderston's detailed approach constitutes another strength of this reference work."-Latin American Research Review

"It will be an essential addition to all Latin American collections. A comprehensive, scholarly work that should help librarians and other researchers in locating a wealth of Latin American writers and their short fiction and criticism about these works. Highly recommended for academic and main public libraries."-ARBA Reference Book Review

"This long-needed guide will greatly facilitate research on the cumbersome body of primary and secondary materials available to scholars of the Latin American short story. Users of this reference tool should be grateful to Balderston for undertaking such a daunting task and producing a volume capable of meeting so many needs."-World Literature Today

"This excellent work meets the need for a well-indexed bibliography of anthologies of Latin American short stories, Latin America being defined as Spanish America (including the Spanish-speaking Caribbean) and Brazil. The first part, which cites 1,302 anthologies in their original languages (Spanish or Portuguese) or in English translation, lists the authors and story titles in each anthology and provides very brief descriptive annotations. The second part, an annotated bibliography of criticism about the Latin American short story, has 376 entries. Both parts cover Latin America in general, regions, and 20 countries in alphabetical order, but exclude materials devoted to individual authors and to folktales. There are indexes of authors represented in the anthologies, critics, titles of the anthologies (but not individual stories) or critical works, and themes. The well-written introduction, also something of a bibliographic essay, discusses the political, literary, and other roles of anthologies; comments on the selection of stories in anthologies published in the US and Britain; and suggests topics for further research and analysis of short stories. Recommended for all libraries supporting study of Latin American or world literature."-Choice

About the Author

DANIEL BALDERSTON is Associate Professor of Spanish at Tulane University. A specialist on Jorge Luis Borges, he has published books and articles on him in Spanish and English, incuding The Literary Universe of Jorge Luis Borges: An Index to References and Allusions to Persons, Titles, and Places in His Writings (Greenwood, 1986). Other books, book chapters, and publications in English- and Spanish-language academic journals focus on aspects of modern Latin America fiction and poetry and the relationships between literature and history and literature and society. Dr. Balderston has also published translations of works by Jose Bianco, Silvina Ocampo, Sylvia Molloy, and Juan Carlos Onetti.