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This collection of twenty-two previously published essays by John Keller, in honor of his seventieth birthday, was conceived as the second of two tributes to his long and illustrious career at the University of Kentucky. In many respects it complements the homage volume published by Juan de la Cuesta in 1980.

Few readers of Hispania need an introduction to the varied writings of John Keller. He is of course well known for his numerous critical editions and translations of medieval Spanish texts, his monographs on Gonzalo de Berceo and Alfonso X el Sabio (both in the Twayne World Author Series), a full-scale assessment of pious narrative in medieval Spanish and Galician, and an ambitious study of the relationship between iconography and narrative art in pious narrative, co-authored with Richard Kinkade, not to mention a long list of pioneering articles on brief narrative fiction.

The particular essays selected for this volume, which reflect the breadth of Keller's research on medieval Spanish brief narrative, betray a wide range of themes and approaches (see the bibliography in the aforementioned Festschrift for additional related studies). The editors have arranged the essays categorically rather than chronologically. Nos. 1-2 treat the role of folklore in the Hispanic world; nos. 3-6, various exempla texts; nos. 7-8, the pilgrimage rivalry between Santa María de Villa-Sirga and Santiago de Compostela in Alfonso's Cantigas; nos. 9-10, the popular appeal of cuaderna vía in medieval Spain and the enigma of Berceo's Milagro XXV, respectively; nos. 11-14, narrative techniques in the stories of don Juan Manuel; nos. 15-22, diverse topics related to the Cantigas.

The essays reflect both the earliest period of John Keller's research in this domain and his most recent contributions. Seven of the essays were originally published in the 1950's, another seven in the 80's. Several of the articles have been updated and additional comments incorporated in both the text and footnotes by either the author or the editors. Thus, the reader is often made aware of recent critical studies, new and forthcoming editions, original oversights, and the like.

The editors have noted that «John Keller's scholarship has always tended toward fundamental analyses of a given work» (p. ix). This observation justly characterizes most of the essays in the volume. In one, for example, the author describes the different types of white magic present in medieval exempla repositories. In another he studies the stylistic and conceptual differences between two extant mss of El libro de los engaños. Other essays examine the presence of folkloric motifs, the portrayal of daily life, the art of illumination, and the role of the Blessed Virgin as matchmaker in the Cantigas. While all of the essays betray a penchant for rigorous textual analysis, those on narrative technique in the Conde Lucanor stories are among the best in the volume. Not only do they provide an insightful look into the artistry of the tales, they lay some of the groundwork for timely analyses based on narratological and reader-response theories.

John S. Geary

University of Colorado, Boulder

Se recogen en este volumen, conmemoración del primer centenario del nacimiento de Américo Castro (1885-1972), veintidós de las ponencias leídas en dos simposios celebrados en octubre de 1985 en Syracuse University y en Princeton University. En la introducción, Edmund L. King da el tono a la obra con una breve pero enjundiosa semblanza biográfica de Américo Castro, que enmarca apropiadamente el contenido del libro. King muestra en ella afecto y profundo conocimiento del hombre y del intelectual.

Los editores han estructurado con mucho acierto los veintidós estudios en cinco secciones, que en sí mismas significan ya una proyección que nos transporta de la intimidad del intelectual en su trabajo a la repercusión que su obra tiene en las nuevas direcciones del hispanismo actual. En la primera, «Remembering Américo Castro» (39-70), se incluyen los ensayos de Julio Rodríguez Puértolas («Entre la memoria y la esperanza»), Robert Kirsner («Semblanza de Américo Castró»), Juan Negrín («Recuerdos inéditos sobre Don Américo y su medio ambiente») y Stephen Gilman («The Last "Don Quijote" of Don Américo»).

La segunda sección, «Américo Castro at Work» (73-113), recoge tres de los estudios más sólidos del libro: Samuel G. Armistead («Américo Castro in Morocco: The Origins of a Theory?»), Joseph H. Silverman («Américo Castro and the Secret Spanish Civil War») y Rafael Lapesa («La huella de Américo Castro en los estudios de lingüística española»).

Los estudios que se agrupan en la tercera sección, «Américo Castro and Historiography» (117-159), intentan una aproximación a los presupuestos teóricos que fundamentan la tesis historiográfica de Castro: Edmund L. King («The Problem of Determinism in Américo Castro's Historiography»), Francisco Márquez Villanueva («Américo Castro y la historia»), John Beverley («Class or Caste: A Critique of the Castro Thesis») y Aniano Peña («Américo Castro en la polémica de la ciencia»). Si exceptuamos el ensayo de Peña, que por su contenido no encuadra en esta sección, los otros tres estudios muestran implícitamente por qué las teorías de Castro no han conseguido la repercusión que merecen. Sucede con Castro algo semejante a lo que le aconteció a Ortega con los «orteguianos». Se pretende tener una interpretación ortodoxa del pensamiento de Castro, mientras se ignoran o silencian aquellos trabajos que dialogan con su obra. La polémica que surgió en torno a las tesis de Castro fue una etapa quizás necesaria, pero que en cualquier caso pertenece al pasado, y no se puede ya seguir afamando, como lo hace King al tratar de la «morada vital» y la «vividura», que «the arguments to the contrary make no effort to meet Castro on the serious level of the theory of history» (118), y al mismo tiempo silenciar todo lo que hasta la fecha se ha escrito al particular:

En la cuarta sección, «Cristianos, moros y judíos» (163-200), se incluyen cuatro estudios que representan otras tantas calas en aspectos ya enunciados por Castro, pero que él no llegó a desarrollar: Adriana Lewis Galanes («Fray Luis de Granada y los anuzim novohispanos a fines del siglo XVI»), A. A. Sicroff («The Arragel Bible»), María Rosa Menocal («And How "Western" was the Rest of Medieval Europe?») y Vicente Cantarino («Américo Castro: Un aspecto olvidado de la polémica»). El ensayo de Menocal es un profundo e incitante análisis que nos proyecta a nuevas perspectivas llamadas a tener gran repercusión en el actual replanteo del concepto de lo «europeo». Destaca Menocal la riqueza de la obra de Castro y la necesidad de superar el nivel polémico y de acercarnos a ella como a la de un clásico. Esto es, precisamente, lo que se consigue en la quinta sección. Se incluyen en ella siete estudios: Ángel L. Cilveti («Américo Castro y Santa Teresa»), Mary Gaylord Randel («Américo Castro y el lenguaje de los estudios literarios»), Helen H. Reed («Américo Castro, Cervantes, y la picaresca»), Daniel P. Testa («El Guzmán de Alfarache como modelo y anti-modelo del Quijote»), Alix Zuckerman-Ingber (A «Most Ingenious Paradox Castro and the Comedia»), Manuel Durán («Américo Castro and the Contemporary Spanish Novel») y Joaquín Rodríguez Suro («La huella de Américo Castro en Terra Nostra»). Se parte en la mayoría de estos últimos trabajos de una asimilación de la obra de Castro. Se trata de una nueva generación que lo asume -para ella la obra de Castro no es ya algo problemático- y así lo supera en un nuevo replanteamiento donde las ideas de Castro encajan en la perspectiva de la historia de nuestras ideas.

Américo Castro: The Impact of His Thought es más que una colección de estudios; representa ante todo una dinámica visión de Américo Castro, el hombre y su obra, y una apertura a la problemática que enfrenta el hispanismo actual. Complementa el volumen una excelente bibliografía anotada de las obras de Castro, preparada por Albert Brent y Robert Kirsner.

Jose Luis Gómez-Martínez

The University of Georgia

In A Patron and a Playwright in Renaissance Spain, Ann Wiltrout approaches her text as logically dividing into three separate but closely connected subject matters. The first is the life and work of the sixteenth-century Spanish playwright, Diego Sánchez de Badajoz, the second is the nature of his patrons, and the third, the intricate interrelationship of patron and playwright. As such, the book is tripartite in structure: Chapters 1 and 2 are devoted to a history of the patrons (House of Feria), chapters 3-5 to a study of the playwright's life and work in general, and chapters 6-8 to a discussion of specific performances of individual plays and the roles of the patrons in each, that is, to establishing the importance of one for the other. A chapter (9) on dating and chronology concludes the work.

Wiltrout's analysis of the playwright's work (twenty-eight farsas, twenty-five of them religious) emphasizes the role of the shepherd as fundamental in all of them, and in the later farsas, the introduction of Christian allegorical elements. In her opinion, the shepherd is not well integrated into the later plays because within their allegorical framework he loses that very flexibility which makes him so intriguing as a dramatic character. Her presentation of the nobles from the House of Feria stresses their interest in supporting religious works especially and by doing so in maintaining the status quo and preserving medieval tradition.

This book is fascinating for its wealth of detail regarding the times, the inner workings of the House of Feria and the specific characteristics and productions of the playwright's works. Its approach is mainly biographical, historical and sociological, which is absolutely appropriate for the subject matter

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and the focus given it. Thoroughly researched and documented, carefully prepared and organized, Wiltrout's book helps to establish the real significance of a playwright like Diego Sánchez and his work (considered a forerunner of the auto sacramental), in addition to the importance of his patrons, without whose nobility and generosity he could not have flourished.

Beyond providing extensive factual information, Wiltrout's work is important for the larger questions it explores, such as the relationship between playwright and patron and that between character and audience. The chapters that treat these topics are of special interest. From a historical and sociological point of view, the patron-playwright association is a crucial one, and it is researched and presented here as one of mutual benefit for the parties involved, who through it worked to achieve a common goal: the preservation of a conservative, religious sixteenth-century feudal ambience.

Of even greater interest in terms of literary theory is the discussion of Diego Sánchez's dramaturgy in general, and especially that of the nature and ever-changing, constantly ambiguous role of its primary character, the shepherd. Chapter 4 is noteworthy in this respect for it examines at length the function of the shepherd vis-a-vis the play, the audience, and the religious idea under consideration, all in relation to the concept of aesthetic distance. According to Wiltrout and as supported by her examples, the shepherd becomes less successful as an artistic creation when utilized in the service of allegorical doctrine, as occurs in the later plays.

From various perspectives then, this book achieves much more than what is explicitly stated in the title. It presents a fascinating portrait of the times, a background against which the playwright, his work and his patrons can be set. It offers a very vivid and detailed description and analysis of one man's life and work; it explores the nature of and reasons for the very intimate relationship between playwright and patron in a particular time period; and, it enters into a sophisticated theoretical discussion of the notion of aesthetic distance based on the shepherd's protean role within the playwright's different works. This book is to be highly recommended as a text vital to the historical, sociological and literary study of early sixteenth century Spanish drama. Above all, it is captivating reading.

Anne M. Pasero

Marquette University

In this collection of essays, Bruno Damiani focuses on six prose works of the Spanish Golden Age in order to underline their didactic elements. This concern for «moralidad y didactismo» could be seen by some as critically anachronistic in a post-modernist era where dissemination, subversion and other notions serve to undermine traditional approaches. But Damiani links his didactic concerns to the belief that in Spain, Christian elements overshadowed many of the central conceptions of the Renaissance. In arguing for the continuation of the Middle Ages during the Renaissance, this volume actually mirrors what Umberto Eco labels as a new trend, the renewed interest in the Middle Ages which he has noticed both in America and in Europe. In Travels in Hiperreality, Eco also claims that, immediately after the official ending of the Middle Ages, European literatures began reflecting a nostalgia for the past epoch. Cervantes figures prominently among Eco's examples and Damiani includes an essay on charity in Don Quijote, arguing that: «La caridad es la cualidad moral que más resplandece en don Quijote. Es asimismo la virtud que le califica sobremanera para ser llamado caballero según los requisitos que se exigían a quien deseara honrar la caballería, según textos antiguos como el Livre de Cavallería y el Amadís de Gaula» (133) .

Charity plays a central role in four of the six essays included in this volume. According to Damiani, it is the central virtue in Montemayor's La Diana, although this pastoral novel also foregrounds prudence, faith, justice and moderation. Charity also appears in Cárcel de amor under the form of pietas (17), the pity that Laureola feels for Leriano. Here, Damiani could have delved more deeply into why he labels Laureola's emotion as pity and not love. Finally, charity is perceived as «la plenitud de la piedad de Dios hacia todos los penitentes» (123) in Malón de Chaide's La conversión de la Magdalena. Indeed, charity could well have been an organizing element in this volume. This and other elements could have been woven together to present a more cohesive text. Lack of editorial care is also evident in the fact that the beginning of the first chapter repeats much of what is said in the introduction.

Although Damiani stresses Christian morality and didacticism, he also interweaves a number of concepts and images from classical literature. For example, when he stresses the Christian ideals that pervade San Pedro's Cárcel de amor, he is careful to balance his approach by studying «ciertos ideales cristianos tales como la humildad y la compasión, dentro de un marco humanístico de contexto caballeresco» (13). In fact, many of his essays are permeated with classical erudition and clearly evince a strong concern with the classical tradition in sixteenth century Spain, although the pagan «mysteries» are used to reinforce Christian beliefs. Even in his discussion of paradisiacal images in Cervantes's La Galatea, Damiani interweaves Ovid and the Apocalypsis, the muses and the saints. In some texts the didactic element emerges through the

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presentation of vices rather than virtues, but even here the classical tradition is prominent. La lozana andaluza, Damiani claims, is modeled after Juvenal's satires and Aristophanes's comedies. Here Delicado depicts the amorality of Rome where «el egoísmo, la deshonestidad, la soberbia y la vanidad son normas de conducta para todos» (46), and where the search for sensual pleasures leads to disaster.

In conclusion, this collection brings together five previously published essays along with a piece on La Galatea in order to foreground the role of Christian morality and didacticism in Spanish Renaissance texts. In this way, Damiani seeks to defend Vossler's dictum that Spain was «la maestra moral de Europa». Scholars interested in the prose of the Spanish Golden Age should be grateful to Damiani for malting these thought-provoking pieces accessible in a single volume.

Frederick A. de Armas

Pennsylvania State University

Although John Weiger is not a Derridean deconstructionist, his monograph In the Margins of Cervantes focuses -as does Derrida's Marges de la philosophie- on analogies, passages, notes, and other marginalia that have been overlooked unjustly, and he shows that such materials are not of marginal consequence by any means. To this exercise, Weiger brings his vast experience as a close reader of Cervantine works and his familiarity with Cervantes criticism, especially that of the last two decades. While devoting most of his attention to Don Quixote, Weiger expands the limits of the masterpiece, making numerous references to other Cervantine works, engaging his readers in the intertextual process of reading, and demonstrating to them that the reader is an essential component of the production of meaning in spite of and because of the instability of the text.

Weiger presents in «Prologues and Prologuists» his most complex essay, one to which he will refer repeatedly as he draws together a collage of Cervantine marginalia throughout the remainder of the study. Weiger underscores the significance of the marginal notation extraneous to the historian Cide Hamete's text (I, 9) in which Dulcinea del Toboso is described as having the best hand for salting pork in La Mancha. He shows that this note calls into question the historian's ability to authenticate his «true history». Moreover, the marginal comment -made by a reader of Don Quixote- draws attention to the problem of authorial identity and to the interaction of multiple authorial voices with the readers within and without the text. Weiger cogently observes that the «author» of the marginal note functions on the same level and with the same methodology as does the authorial voice of the 1605 prologuist for part I. Denying that the prologuist is Cervantes himself, Weiger points out that it is the prologuist's friend who first says that Don Quixote is a funny and parodic book. Cervantes, on the other hand, remains hidden and allows his authorial voices to confront the reader with the unstable writing of history and fiction in the text. Weiger contrasts earlier and later Cervantine prologues with that of 1605 to demonstrate Cervantes's particular concerns with history, fiction, authoring, and reading just after he had written Don Quixote I.

In «Inimical Friends», observations on Cervantes's own preoccupations about a supposed lack of friends are intertwined with comments about fictional friends who are readers and writers in Cervantine texts. A related theme is treated in «Failed Readers and Failed Writers» where Cervantes's sensitivity to the risks of publishing his works is discussed in the contexts of several Cervantine characters as writers and readers. On such character, Don Diego de Miranda, is considered to be an anti-reader of histories and devotional works. Curiously, in Miranda's case Weiger equates history with a lack of invention, and -contrary to the use of «history» elsewhere in the monograph- he does not account for the uses of fiction in historical writing.

As Weiger points out in «Don Quixote's Alienation from his Book», the protagonist is a non-reader of the actual material book about himself, but most of his actions in part II are reactions to his «reading» of other readers' readings of part I. Weiger also observes that the writing experience is often dreamlike for Don Quixote and other Cervantine authorial figures who attempt to stimulate the mind of the reader. He creates a unique quantifying system to show how the reader is drawn into the writing process by the delayed naming of characters. Contrasting with other contemporary critics, Weiger denies in «Closure» that Cervantes gains more authorial control in his later works. Weiger returns to the prologuist of Don Quixote and concludes that rather than being metafiction -a novel about novel writing- it is a fiction about a history which is, of course, a fiction.

Weiger has called attention to overlooked aspects of Cervantes's texts, discussing them with regard to textual instability and the interrelated roles of writers and readers. In a study highlighting the act of reading, however, a model or models of what Weiger really means by «the reader» would have been beneficial. On most occasions the implied reader in Weiger's monograph seems to be a highly skilled one, perhaps a Cervantine critic like himself. While Weiger denies that a seventeenth-century reader could produce the sort of reading that he does of Don Quixote, he implies that a seventeenth-century writer and reader -Cervantes himself- could read like a twentieth-century critic. In addition, Weiger sometimes notes

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that many of the «readers» in the texts he discusses are really listeners. As a whole, however, there is no account in his study of the profound differences between listening and reading or between speaking and writing. These remarks are not meant to detract from Weiger's enlightening monograph. Such matters remain to be revealed in future Cervantine criticism, and Weiger's In the Margins of Cervantes will be one of the critical works on which such approaches can be based.

Catherine Swietlicki

University of Wisconsin-Madison

N. D. Shergold y J. E. Varey con la colaboración de Charles Davis han publicado dentro de la colección de Fuentes para la historia del teatro en España este nuevo volumen sobre los arriendos de los corrales de comedias de Madrid. El estudio cubre el período que transcurre entre 1587 y 1719, es decir; unos ciento treinta y dos años en que se examina la importancia económica que tuvieron de acuerdo con su actividad y el engranaje administrativo por el que se rigieron. El libro consta, en primer lugar, de un prefacio explicativo de la labor realizada en el que se detallan pormenores sobre los documentos consultados así como diversos aspectos de algunas otras publicaciones sobre el tema. En segundo término aparece una tabla de referencias que da paso a las tres partes básicas en que está dividido el trabajo.

La primera es una extensa introducción en que se discute el desarrollo que los arrendamientos fueron sufriendo hasta su desaparición en 1719 que coincidió con los cambios que produjo la guerra de Sucesión y la consecuente llegada de la nueva familia reinante. Estos hechos y las modas y maneras de hacer que se introdujeron en España, unido a la grave crisis económica de aquellos años y la mala conservación de los edificios, fueron las causas que acabaron con el sistema que había prevalecido hasta esa fecha.

La segunda parte consta de cuarenta y seis documentos de arriendo no sólo sobre los locales sino también sobre la venta de fruta y agua y otros servicios. A ellos se añaden otros sobre las representaciones de los autos sacramentales por volatines y títeres. Se termina con un apartado consistente en un cuadro que constituye un catálogo de arrendadores, fiadores y precios para terminar con un índice general.

El trabajo de Varey y Shergold es, sin duda, valioso para el estudio de la historia del teatro en su momento de mayor apogeo. Nos ofrece un ángulo que por ser poco popularizado es interesante para adentrarse en toda la tramoya de la actividad teatral de la época y conocer su organización interior.

Cuando se habla o se lee sobre el teatro del Siglo de Oro generalmente no se penetra detrás del andamiaje escénico que, sin embargo, es lo que hace posible la representación. La figura del Comisario, encargado de los libros de Manual y Caja, y del Mayordomo, su agente, son cargos que tuvieron un importante significado cuando las Cofradías de la Sagrada Pasión de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo y la de la Soledad de Nuestra Señora adquirieron el local de la Calle de la Cruz en 1579 y en 1582 el de la Calle del Príncipe. Este sistema de explotación sufrió cambios cuando se publicaron los Reglamentos de teatros que reformaron su administración debido a un apogeo extraordinario de la vida teatral que surgió al mismo tiempo que un crecimiento importante de la misma ciudad de Madrid. Hacia 1635 cuando las Cofradías cedieron la administración de los Corrales al Ayuntamiento, el arrendador se convirtió en empresario y adquirió un nuevo papel en el desarrollo de la labor teatral.

En definitiva, se trata de un libro que no sólo al especialista sino a todo curioso del teatro le interesará conocer por su contenido, la información que encierra y los detalles reveladores sobre lo que era el teatro en ese tiempo. Desde el principio se nota la detallada investigación y esfuerzo que los autores han realzado así como la meticulosidad que han puesto en ella, lo que hace que el volumen sea atractivo desde cualquier punto de vista.

Enrique Ruiz-Fornells

University of Alabama

About 345 years after Quevedo's death, the three recent publications reviewed here attest to the enduring value of one of Spain's greatest writers.

Lía Schwartz Lerner's book is a collection of ten studies, six of which have been previously published in journal articles and the remaining four were written for this book. It is divided into three sections of studies: l) Quevedo's well-known satirical style, which encompasses word play, «dialectos sociales y poética barroca», proverbial discourse dealing with madness, and metaphor and ideology regarding the loss of justice in 17th-century society; 2) intertextuality in baroque texts, by which she means the relationship between many of his own texts and those of such classical writers as Martial and Juvenal, and how he manages the commonplace imitatio with respect to «imitación de objetos e imitación de modelos artísticos» (191); and 3) a section entitled «Representaciones» which deals with the comparison of Quevedo's literary

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portraits with those of Theophrastus, and Quevedo's adaptation of the traditional cultural sign of la barba as the equivalent of wisdom.

Schwartz Lerner knows a lot about the many classical writers she uses and is well conversant with Quevedo's prose and poetry and many of the scholarly studies on this author. The studies in her book appropriately focus on Quevedo's style, which is probably the most creative and significant aspect of the corpus of his works. She contributes many useful examples to demonstrate Quevedo's stylistic virtuosity and his linkage with writers of the past, thus amplifying much of what Quevedo specialists already have seen in his writings.

This reviewer, however, feels obliged to point out several reservations. The author displays her erudition in adducing Quevedo's indebtedness to writers of classical antiquity but it is very difficult if not impossible to ascribe his stylistic technique directly to certain specific writers. We recall that it was customary for many writers of the Golden Age to cite numerous classical writers in order to lend more authority to their own writings, but much of their «classical» knowledge was in the public domain Consider, for example, the author's fourth chapter in which she provides many examples of Quevedo's complaint about the absence of justice in his day. She states that Cervantes, in the episode of the galley slaves, «prefigures» Quevedo's ideas on justice. Not only did Quevedo and Cervantes write some of their best works during the same fifteen years, but, in addition, the lament over the loss of justice and a yearning for a paradise regained, which have been with us since the time of ancient Greece, was commonly found in Spanish Golden Age literature (see Frederick A. de Armas' The Return of Astraea, Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1986, 1-58). Cervantes, Quevedo and Gracián, among others, wrote about a return to a just society.

It would have been helpful to include a bibliography at the end of the book. A vast amount of bibliography and explanations appears only in footnotes and the reader may wonder whether all this is necessary. In Chapter 3, which relates to proverbial discourse on madness, it is surprising that about one third of the space is devoted to Quevedo and the remainder to Erasmus, Cervantes, Gracián and other authors. Finally, a reader usually expects a conclusion which would lend cohesion to the author's studies.

Alva V. Ebersole's edition of Quevedo's Sentencias filosóficas is the third in a series of Clásicos Albatros, making accessible Spanish classical works of literature. The work of Quevedo was first published by Aguilar in 1932, and apparently no other edition of it has appeared until now. The book provides interesting insights into Quevedo's thought as he neared the end of his hectic life. Ebersole furnishes a chronology, an introduction on Quevedo and his style, a useful list of literary terms and a bibliography. This edition, as others in the series, is typographically attractive.

James Iffland's edition of El buscón is a first-rate piece of scholarship intended for serious students of this exemplary picaresque novel. The text that he has reproduced is Fernando Lázaro Carreter's critical edition published in 1965. The princeps of 1626 was not chosen since Roberto Duport published it without Quevedo's permission. In his widely accepted critical edition, Lázaro tried to establish the second, revised version of El buscón as the most reliable one since he believed that the author personally made changes. He admits that it is impossible to prove Quevedo's intervention but conjectures that any reader familiar with his style could not fail to notice that Quevedo was responsible for the alterations.

Iffland's useful introduction to his edition provides a synthesis of several issues on which critics have taken divergent stands. The essential issue seems to be «the degree to which he [Pablos de Segovia] coheres as a character and as the narrator of his own life» (viii-ix). If they do not agree on Pablos' characterization, they generally concur that all other characters are stereotypical. Critics also have differing views regarding the novel's structural unity. A hotly debated question is whether the work has a moral intent. Another point of contention revolves about the nature of the novel's social or ideological message. Iffland generally does not side with one faction or another since he believes that his function is mainly to point out to readers the contrasting perspectives of those critics who have wrestled with the issues. The Introduction is replete with valuable notes and bibliography and Iffland also includes a brief supplementary bibliography.

The edition itself contains a plethora of footnotes that translate and explain difficult words and phrases and his historical and cultural notes are illuminating. This meticulously crafted book is highly recommended.

Donald W. Bleznick

University of Cincinnati

This work, also published as volume 15 of the series Textos y Estudios del Siglo XVIII by the Centro de Estudios del Siglo XVIII of the University of Oviedo, is an impressive analysis of Meléndez Valdés's poetry. It utilizes data provided by the equally significant critical edition of Meléndez Valdés's poetry prepared by Polt and J. Demerson (Oviedo: Cátedra Feijoo-Centro de Estudios del Siglo XVIII, 1981-83) and serves as a companion piece to the earlier two-volume work.

Fortunately for the author, Meléndez Valdés left abundant material for a thorough analysis of his poetic style. The various manuscripts and editions

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allowed Polt to establish approximate dates of composition and, therefore, to follow the trajectory of the poet's creative process through his many corrections.

While one might expect that this work includes all of Meléndez Valdés's production, Polt chose to limit his study in order not to extend his work excessively and for reasons of time. This decision explains why he has called his work studies rather than a study of Batilo's poetry. Polt examines anacreontic poems including those of La paloma de Filis, the romances, and the early odes. He focused on the early poems because Meléndez revised them often and they, therefore, better demonstrate his changing poetic sensibility and his creative process. While the primary interest is in stylistic details, Polt also treats themes and sources in order to reach a better understanding of how Meléndez worked and the poetic path which he followed.

In the longest and perhaps the most impressive chapter, Polt studies the anacreontic tradition, choice of vocabulary, syntax, rhyme, rhythm, rhetorical figures, tropes, motifs, themes, narrative voice and the addressee. His careful evaluation of the rhythmical patterns of the anacreontic odes is especially praiseworthy. He shows that rhythm, whether conscious or not on the part of the poet, is a particularly important element in these poems, and that the greater utilization of dactylic rhythm is on e of several manifestations of the poet's tendency to become more classical.

Polt carefully analyzes selected poems from the anacreontic odes. Ode XXXIII, for example, probably written before 1775, appeared in seven different versions but still consisted of twenty-four verses. In the 1820 edition, however, forty additional verses were included. Polt's detailed history of the changes which occur in this poem and his highly rewarding evaluation of the effect that these emendations have on the poem give the reader much insight into Meléndez Valdés's esthetic values. Polt argues that the 1820 version of the poem became more explicitly «clásico en sus motivos y su lenguaje» (36). This tendency which Polt finds in the poetry of Meléndez Valdés as a whole is contrary to the traditional view of him as a poet who moved toward a more romantic world view as his career progressed.

Each of the four chapters is devoted to a different group of poems but all follow the general pattern of Chapter 1 with appropriate emphasis on certain aspects of the creative process. Rhythm is granted more attention in the opening chapter than in those that follow, and Chapter 4 provides much information on the Renaissance and classical sources of the early odes studied in that chapter. The later odes, primarily those with a philosophical and religious theme, are not neglected. Polt considers the well-known recommendation of Jovellanos to write on more serious topics than those of the anacreontic poems. While Meléndez continued to write anacreontic verses, Polt shows that the poet tended to eliminate or temper erotic elements in his later works. Apparently his friend's advice, his readings of contemporary foreign authors, and the death of his brother motivated Meléndez to reconsider the ode as a form. He succeeded in purifying its language while elevating and renovating its themes. Polt observes that the new direction can also be seen in the romances and the anacreontic poems, although the change is more decisive in the odes.

This work is clearly a valuable contribution to eighteenth-century studies, and merits its simultaneous publication in this country and in Spain. We now have a much better understanding of the poet's creative process.

Edward V. Coughlin

University of Cincinnati

In their study of the life and works of Francisco de Paula Martínez de la Rosa (1787-1862), a man of letters who bridged two epochs in Spanish history and literature, the Mayberrys follow the familiar format of the Twayne Spanish Literature series, edited by Janet Pérez. As is the case of many other Spanish writers, it serves well as the only available book-length study in English of an author known to few readers who are not Hispanists.

Martínez de la Rosa was one of the most distinguished public figures of his generation. Born in Granada in 1787, the next to the last year of the reign of Carlos III, he grew up in the Spain of Carlos IV, María Luisa de Parma, and their favorite Manuel Godoy. He was twenty-one in 1808, the year that Napoleon's troops invaded the Peninsula and brought an end to the ancien régime in Spain. He wrote patriotic articles against the French, undertook political missions to England, and was elected to the Cortes of Cádiz. Under the repressive regime of Fernando VII, he suffered imprisonment in north Africa but was released in time to participate in political life during the constitutional triennium of 1820-1823, becoming prime minister briefly in 1822 . With the restoration of Fernando as an absolute monarch, Martínez again went into exile. After the «ominous decade», he returned to Spain, became prime minister in 1834-1835, and wrote the Estatuto Real, which was in effect a new constitution. In the years that followed, he became the elder statesman of Spanish politics and letters: president of the Ateneo, director of the Royal Spanish Academy, foreign minister, ambassador to France and to Italy, president of the Lower Chamber of Deputies.

Martínez de la Rosa was a moderate in an age when extremism was the rule, but his was a noble life. The Mayberrys quote an assessment of Martínez by the British diplomat Lord Clarendon, who

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thought him a «just, benevolent and honorable man» (13); but Clarendon, irritated evidently by Martínez the politician, goes on to say: «with that unerring sign of a little mind, he seeks to surround himself with men miserably inferior to himself, who feed his vanity» (13). Was Martínez a moderate in politics and an eclectic in literature as he is so often portrayed? Or was he perhaps a mediocrity in both as Clarendon's assessment suggests?

The Mayberrys treatment of his oeuvre will not answer the question. True to the requirements of the Twayne books, they deal evenhandedly with the whole of Martínez's works ranging from El cementerio de Momo, a youthful collection of satiric epitaphs, to his monumental historical work El espíritu del siglo in ten volumes. Martínez de la Rosa, it appears, will continue to be known best for his historical dramas, the most important of which are La conjuración de Venecia and Aben-Humeya, and for his essay, «Apuntes sobre el drama histórico». Yet a reading of the Mayberrys' book suggests ideas whose pursuit might lead to a revision of Martínez's place in the intellectual history of Spain. For example, his initial comedy, Lo que puede un empleo, was first played in Cádiz in 1812 while the French were besieging the city. It is said that a bomb narrowly missed the theater during a performance but that the absorbed audience remained to see it through. Martínez wrote that his object was «to present in the theater a certain kind of political hypocrite who, under cover of religion, opposes beneficial reforms» (67). What we have is an anti-clerical statement that extols freedom of the press and the new constitution that was being written in Cádiz. Studies that are able to exploit the linkage between Martínez the historian, politician, and creative writer, and the age in which he lived and wrote, would seem to offer a fruitful direction for a reassessment of one of the most attractive figures of the age.

John Dowling

University of Georgia

En el Prólogo a este reciente libro comenta su autor sobre la creciente importancia filosófica y literaria de Miguel de Unamuno en las cinco décadas pasadas desde su muerte. Observa también cómo la crítica -centrada durante años en su obra ensayística y filosófica- se ha desplazado, en los últimos tiempos, hacia su labor como novelista, dando lugar a una enorme cantidad de estudios que «hacen hincapié en temas y elementos biográficos» (9) Menos atención, sin embargo, han recibido los aspectos estrictamente literarios, circunstancia que aduce Nicholas para justificar esta nueva contribución a la ya ingente bibliografía unamuniana. Su libro aspira, pues, a llenar lo que estima como un cierto vacío crítico con «un estudio de síntesis sobre el desarrollo artístico de las novelas de Unamuno» (10).

El estudio se divide en cuatro capítulos que se titulan: 1) El personaje de ficción (Amor y pedagogía, Niebla); 2) El personaje como narrador (Abel Sánchez, Tulio Montalbán y Julio Macedo); 3) El personaje-símbolo y el símbolo- personaje (Tres novelas ejemplares y un prólogo, La tía Tula); 4) La ficción del personaje (Teresa, Cómo se hace una novela, San Manuel Bueno, mártir, La novela de don Sandalio, jugador de ajedrez). En el análisis de cada novela, Nicholas se encamina a destacar las técnicas narrativas de Unamuno, las que considera como el resultado de la visión existencial del escritor. De este modo revela la inseparable fusión de forma y fondo en un creador con «un dominio absoluto del arte de novelar» y que «escribió novelas de gran unidad artística» (129). Precisamente lo que da unidad a este estudio parece ser la tesis central del vínculo entrañable entre literatura y vida en Unamuno, relación que Nicholas examina no tanto como tema o motivo filosófico, sino como consecuencia de los recursos formales empleados en la estructuración y composición de las novelas.

Aplicando un método, según él mismo afirma, de «dentro afuera» y «sin aplicar a priori ninguna preceptiva» (136), el autor de Unamuno, narrador se ha concentrado en el análisis de los complejos juegos de la escritura y la lectura (múltiples perspectivas y variados niveles narrativos) que ponen de manifiesto la dialéctica de personaje-narrador-autor-lector. Pero, a pesar de su insistencia en los aspectos formales, su análisis conduce a cada paso al sentido existencial de la literatura en Unamuno. Es aquí donde el libro de Nicholas deja la impresión de lo reiterado, escollo difícil de salvar a estas alturas de la crítica unamuniana. No poco de lo que Nicholas dice sobre el pensamiento de Unamuno, e incluso de algunos de sus recursos formales, ya se ha dicho; por lo cual resurgen conceptos tópicos de la crítica, tales como «espejismo narrativo», desdoblamientos, la dialéctica de saber/ser, de ser/no ser. Terminamos la lectura no con una interpretación radicalmente nueva del novelista, sino más bien con la imagen generalizada por la crítica precedente: un Unamuno existencial que se busca a sí mismo en la creación novelística.

Con lo dicho no se pretende, de modo alguno, quitar méritos a un trabajo que en muchos aspectos es excelente: serio, riguroso, bien organizado y con abundantes juicios agudos sobre el quehacer literario de Unamuno. Trátase, simplemente, de limitar las expectativas en cuanto a «novedad» se refiere. Sí quisiera además señalar que, en mi opinión, sobran los esquemas argumentales de novelas tan leídas y comentadas por los expertos.

Por otra parte, debe elogiarse la claridad expositiva del autor, su manera diáfana y precisa de expresar sus ideas sin necesidad de recurrir al excesivo uso de terminología técnica que caracteriza a una parte de la crítica contemporánea. Como visión de conjunto, que atiende a la intrincada unidad

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de sentido y forma en la novela, este libro ofrece una buena introducción a esa faceta de la labor creadora del genial escritor vasco.

Gemma Roberts

University of Miami

Wilcox's book is an analysis of five poetic texts dealing with images of selfhood during three periods (approximately 1900-1913, 1914-1936, and 1936-1956). He gives for each text modern (Anglo and American Formalist, European structuralist), post modern (semiotic, psychoanalytic, deconstructionist), and specialist (traditional academic) readings. The first period, the pre-Modern, is dominated by «lunar aestheticism». The second period is the Modern, the period of «solar aestheticism». Wilcox characterizes the final period, the post-Modern, as «an aesthetic for twilight». The author sustains that during these periods Jiménez's Obra reveals «a struggle between two actants» (xi), the «bright» Dr. Jekyll and the «dark» Mr. Hyde.

After explaining his three reading strategies and introducing his thesis in the first chapter, Wilcox devotes the following two chapters to a study of the pre-Modern phase of lunar aestheticism. Chapter 2 presents a most interesting analysis of the poem «¿Soy yo quien anda esta noche?» from Jardines lejanos (1904). For Wilcox, the poem is an «actantial drama» in which the «bright» Dr. Jekyll -«an innocent pantheist» who will evolve into a Modern poet- struggles with a «dark» Mr. Hyde, tormented by a post-Modern «condition of différance» (51). Chapter 3 studies various manifestations of Mr. Hyde's domination of the first (pre-Modern) phase of the Jiménez Obra. Among these manifestations are such polysemic lexemes as «sol», «luna», «perro», «pájaro agorero», «cuervo», «corneja», «sapo», «troncos», «hombre enlutado», «sombra», «fantasma», and «mendigo». These negative lexemes, which Wilcox describes as a sub-text, are «signs of an inner darkness of an other which the poet could never confront» (75).

The two chapters which follow analyze the Modern phase of affirmative solar aestheticism. Chapter 4 concerns itself primarily with the poem «Golfo» from Diario de un poeta recién casado (1917). Wilcox states that this poem can be read as «a poet's reflections of his changing aesthetic» (106) Jiménez's awareness of being imprisoned in a «gulf», between «the secure and the same» and the «nebulous, indeterminate, unknown» (107). Chapter 5 explicates the «contorted sonnet» (127) «Yo y yo» (Piedra y cielo, 1919), which vibrantly affirms selfhood until its presentation of self as image in the «dark», deconstructive closure.

The two concluding chapters study Jiménez's post-Modern phase, which the author describes as an «aesthetic for twilight» (129). Chapter 6 analyzes the lengthy prose-poem «Espacio», composed of three «fragments» and dated 1941-1942-1954. This work constitutes a synthesis of both positive and negative elements, «manic highs of ecstasy and extreme lows of despair» (153). Chapter 7 presents Wilcox's «fictionalized reconciliation of the [Jiménez] Obra» (155); here he recapitulates his view that the exalted idealism shown in the Modern phase of the Obra changes to an «awareness of the process of anti-idealization» (160), which is developed in the «contradictory impulses (terrestrial and celestial)» (167) of the final post-Modern phase. A brief «Postscript» summarizes Wilcox's concept of the Jiménez Obra as composed of successive movements which reveal Juan Ramón's poetic persona as that of an «engulfer» whose writings present to the reader a complex blending of «bright» and «dark» personae.

Wilcox's study is a significant contribution to Jiménez scholarship, as well as an interesting experiment in the incorporation of different reading strategies. The detailed analyses of individual poems may well constitute the most valuable portions of the work; one could even wish for a greater number of such analyses, which would also serve the purpose of strengthening further the author's central thesis. One small objection the terms «Dr. Jekyll» and «Mr. Hyde» are perhaps too strong to characterize the conflicting personae revealed in the Jiménez Obra; Juan Ramón lived a long life, and it is only natural that there would be changes in images of selfhood during more than half a century of intense poetic activity.

The book, with its dustcover reproduction of the 1903 Sorolla portrait of Jiménez, is attractive and contains few typographical errors. A list of Works Cited and an Index follow a section of Notes which also contains material of interest.

Carole A. Holdsworth

Loyola University of Chicago

La profesora Richmond está acostumbrando mal al lector. La obra que nos toca reseñar contiene no sólo la deseada reedición de una de las mejores novelas del vanguardismo hispánico en los años 20, sino el mejor y más completo estudio monográfico que sobre ella se ha publicado. El estudio ocupa 112 páginas. A lo que hay que añadir que no son raras las páginas del texto novelesco en las que la mitad está cubierta de notas aclaratorias. Ni es la primera vez que Richmond contribuye tan atinadamente a invalidar su propia afirmación de que Gómez de la Serna es uno de los escritores peor estudiados. Su anterior edición de La quinta de Palmyra (1982), contenía un estudio de 150 páginas como preludio a una novela de 154.

Richmond comienza por situar la novela camoniana en su contexto geográfico, histórico y literario, revisa la recepción de la obra desde el momento de su aparición, todo ello con datos de primera mano. Tras el examen de la «circunstancia», se adentra en el estudio del texto, revelando el «arte novelístico» de Ramón, que no es, como se nos solía decir hasta ahora, una mal ensartada cosecha de greguerías en torno a un tema o a un objeto, sino un auténtico experimento novelesco en el que se imbrican y trenzan diversos proyectos y recorridos narrativos. Como nos muestra Richmond, en esta novela hay una historia erótica de broncos perfiles y, a la vez, el drama de la evolución de un personaje que empieza asumiendo un rol de Pygmalión y acaba en desconcertado y voyeurista cocu magnifique. Voyeurismo previsible en un personaje cuya única obsesión, durante años, ha sido la contemplación maniática de la monumental estructura, hasta el extremo de considerarse y ser visto, entre burlas y veras, cronista oficial del Acueducto. De este asedio sensorial y sentimental, erudito y apasionado, brota la tercera rama en que se trenza el texto, constituida por las anotaciones que el personaje va inscribiendo en sus cuadernos monográficos. Notas que, por supuesto, pertenecen a la estirpe ramoniana de la greguería.

No es Ramón, por mucho que el cliché haya circulado, un escritor de superficie, deslumbrador e inauténtico. Esa batería de luces funciona en él, como en tantos otros tímidos grafómanos, a modo de máscara encubridora de unas graves y obsesionantes preocupaciones existenciales. Una de cuyas caras es la reiterada presencia de la muerte, que a través de las mallas, atraviesa la cota protectora, como lo pone acertadamente de relieve el estudio de Richmond (90-95) y que también nos revela su funcionamiento en par contrastivo con la obsesión de la inmortalidad -permanencia de los monumentos, perennidad de la naturaleza. El parentesco filial con Unamuno resulta sorprendente para quienes no conocían a Ramón más que de oídas y de antologías. El acueducto, en un gesto final de justicia literaria que sólo superficialmente puede tomarse como un juego fácil de palabras, es el convidado de piedra que con su peso de gravedad y de eternidad desequilibra y destruye la arquitectura mental del protagonista.

Esta excelente y cuidada edición se completa con una bibliografía necesaria y una documentación (plano de Segovia, reproducciones históricas del Acueducto, portada de la primera edición) que contribuye a situar perfectamente la lectura de esta novela indispensable para el conocimiento de lo que fue el género en los breves y liberados años de la vanguardia.

Ignacio Soldevila-Durante

Université Laval, Québec

Written by university professors from different countries, intellectual traditions and orientations, these ten studies both in Spanish and in English reflect their authors' individual interests as much as their assessments of Ramón Ruiz Salvador, who has studied the role of the «Ateneo», compares Ramón's sometimes erroneous recollections of his Ateneo involvement (in Automoribundia) with documented historical facts. Carolyn Richmond, who is concerned with establishing the dates when Ramón wrote and published El secreto del acueducto authenticates the dates, sources, and references in that work and establishes the precise times of Ramón's visits to Segovia. Soldevila-Durante posits an early, political and «marxist» period in Ramón's life, and theorizes that the disappearance of some of Ramón's early books and articles indicate the writer's efforts to eradicate the records of misguided youthful political involvements.

Contrarily, Victor Oiumette writes of Ramón's «resistance to socio-political and historical concerns» (45), stating that he isolated himself, «insofar as was possible, from history and its motor which is politics» (45). He attributes the basic egocentrism in Ramón's work partly to the writer's continuing desire to cultivate «unity between his fictional world and his persona» (49) and partly to his essentially subjective view of reality.

Morris's even more subjective study on Cinelandia criticizes its «distasteful allusions to Jews and Negroes» (153) and describes it as a work in which «gossip, guidebook, sermon and novel overlap» (153-154), «an indictment rather than a chronicle of Hollywood» (161), and compares it with scenes in Quevedo's Sueños! Morris considers Cinelandia «a work of austere moral attitudes directed against a cataclysmic social phenomenon» (169) -a claim hard to reconcile with the author's persona or his imaginative, fragmented and kaleidoscopic presentation of the Movieland ambience.

Alan Hoyle approaches El secreto del acueducto from a different perspective than Richmond's, seeing it as an extended metaphor which describes «a fundamental link between Don Pablo's libido and his interest in the aqueduct» (175). Hoyle perceives the aqueduct «both as a pure object of contemplation, and as an object of historical and philosophical meditation» (176-177). He notes Ramón's descriptions of it «under varying conditions of fight and weather... in mid-day heat... at night... beneath the autumn rains... in winter...» (183), and compares its changing images with Don Pablo's changing moods.

The mandatory study of Ramón's greguerías is provided by Manuel Durán, who claims that the greguerías had a strong influence on the generation of '27 (116) and backs this contention with minimal examples from Guillén, Lorca, Diego, Altolaguirre, Salinas and Alberti. César Nicolás, also writing on Ramón's imagery and style, makes an important

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observation when he notes the astonishing relationship between Ramón's verbal images and René Magritte's metonymic, surrealistic works of art. Nicolás contends that both, Ramón and Magritte, in their different genres, accomplished «La deshumanización del arte» advocated by Ortega.

«Oppositional criticism» (205) is intentionally provided by Anthony Percival's contribution on the Mujer de ámbar. After reminding the reader of Gómez de la Serna's reputation for playfulness and whimsy, Percival unexpectedly describes this novelas «steeped in obsession, violence and death» (205), reflecting the writer's «bleak vision of reality» (205)! Percival also criticizes Ramón's verbalism as excessive and self-indulgent.

Nigel Dennis's introductory study breaks some new ground in noting the extent to which Gómez de la Serna «functioned as a stimulus and example to other writers» (9) and pointing out the affinities «between the techniques of the greguería and certain images coined by major poets of the twenties» (9). He laments that the quantity, unevenness and «recycling» of Ramón's works together with his long absence from Spain have somewhat obscured his contributions to Spanish literature (17).

The volume contains an excellent bibliography providing an overview of the critical books, articles, and theses on Ramón published since his death in 1963 and listing the author's works in print.

The works in this collection are somewhat uneven in quality and content and overall, contain relatively few new insights. Nevertheless, their timely publication, marking the centenary of Ramón's birth, helps to rescue him from undeserved oblivion and encourage a needed reassessment of his influence on contemporary Spanish literature.

Rita Gardiol

Ball State University

El propósito de las editoras, expuesto en el prefacio del volumen, explica y justifica la orientación y las características de los ensayos incluidos. Su intención fue presentar «to the non-Hispanist the wide variety of talented playwrights offered by postwar Spain». El destinatario potencial es el no-especialista de habla inglesa, hecho que tiende a reducir la amplitud del interés que ha suscitado el teatro español contemporáneo en la crítica académica. El que todos los ensayos estén escritos en inglés es, por supuesto, válido y justificable. No lo es, sin embargo, el que la mayor parte de las referencias bibliográficas sean casi exclusivamente ensayos o libros escritos en inglés y que la bibliografía final (preparada por Wilma Newberry), sólo incluya materiales escritos en inglés y predominantemente publicados en Estados Unidos. Con esto silencia una buena y valiosa porción de la crítica.

De acuerdo con el objetivo propuesto, la colección cumple plenamente su propósito y lo hace con gran dignidad crítica: Los ensayos cubren la mayor parte de los dramaturgos españoles contemporáneos, se tocan temas significativos y se abren perspectivas que pueden interesar. Por otro lado, esta misma orientación puede dejar insatisfechos a los especialistas: las visiones son demasiado generales, hay mucho material que pertenece ya a manuales de literatura española, en cada ocasión que se habla de un autor, se lleva a cabo una presentación general del mismo, se cuentan los argumentos de las obras que citan y se refieren a la obra o la vida del autor. Este pie forzado del volumen se complementa con el interés y la originalidad de muchos de los temas elegidos. Las editoras asignaron varios temas realmente novedosos o no del todo explorados en la crítica anterior, algunos de gran relevancia y que merecerían estudios en mayor profundidad. La mención de algunos de ellos evidencia este aspecto, diría provocador, de los temas elegidos: «The Theatrical Gap between Sastre's Criticism and the Later Plays» (Felicia Hardison Londré), «Plays of Conscience and Consciousness: Psychological Drama in Contemporary Spain» (Phyllis Zatlin), «The Metatheatrical Impulse in Post-Civil War Spanish Comedy» (Marion Holt), «The Politics of History: Images of Spain on the Stage of the 1970s» (Martha Halsey), «Antonio Gala and the New Catholicism» (Robert Louis Sheenan), «Spain: A Recurring Theme in the Theatre of Fernando Arrabal» (Peter L. Podol), «Francisco Nieva: Spanish Representative of the Theater of the Marvellous» (Emil G. Singes), «Avant-garde Spanish Playwrights in the 1970s» (Hazel Cazorla), «A Theater in Transition: From Paternalism to Pornography» (Patricia W. O'Connor).

El volumen en sí constituye una excelente introducción a autores y temas de interés dentro del teatro español contemporáneo. Es posible que sea de gran utilidad para quienes, sin leer español, se sientan interesados por él. Por otra parte, puede ser de gran validez para los cursos sobre teatro español en Estados Unidos, ya sea a nivel graduado o no graduado. En estos últimos, además de la información que proporciona, puede que despierte el interés por continuar con la investigación de los temas esbozados en los ensayos. Es un libro recomendable por su propósito y por la apertura hacia perspectivas y temas de relevancia, aunque el lector informado desearía que se problematizara más lo descrito.

Juan Villegas

University of California, Irvine

This exciting collection of literary essays is a fitting

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tribute to Anson Conant Piper, William Dwight Whitney Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages at Williams College, to whom it is dedicated. The articles, on a multiplicity of topics, are of uniformly good quality. Their collection recalls the root meaning of the word festschrift, for it is a celebration of humanistic studies and a feast for the scholar, particularly the student of Comparative Literature.

Contributors include former students, friends, and colleagues from Piper's more than fifty years' connection with Williams, beginning with his freshman year there in 1936. There are also articles from associates from his graduate school days at the University of Wisconsin. Such selection assures a cadre of distinguished scholars of the maturity and reputation of Roberto Sánchez and Germaine Brée and also of the wit and wisdom of younger writers such as Diana de Armas Wilson.

Literary approaches range from the most recent reader-oriented literary theory and feminist criticism to the more traditional historical and linguistic studies. There is even a tour de force by Irwin Shainman, Piper's friend and colleague of more than thirty-five years at Williams, of Verdi's life, works and significance using his Spanish operas as a focus. In addition, there is a fascinating article on «The Structure of Personal Power: Politics and the Hispanic Novel» by his former student Russell O. Salmon.

The subject matter is as democratic as the approaches used to elucidate the material. There are articles on Spanish, Latin American, French, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, American, British, and African writers of French expression, writing in a variety of genres.

The style of the essays is sprightly, at times even amusing, but never frivolous. Some of the most enjoyable essays are by former students who initially entered academe and then went into other fields. Writing is now an avocation for them, and their love and enthusiasm for literature radiate. Such a writer is August J. Aquila, a Doctor of Philosophy and a Certified Public Accountant. Author of numerous works on literary and nonliterary subjects, Aquila's essay «The Conquistadores and the 16th Century Spanish Concept of the Ideal Soldier», challenges the negative and stereotypical image of the conquistador. Another such author is Robert L. Mitchell. Now an international advertising executive, Mitchell left academe in 1981. Author of several books on literary figures and also of translations, he tells the reader candidly in his essay that he is writing on Ponge and Valéry because they are two of his favorite writers of the twentieth century. His passion for their writing does not prevent his imparting a balanced, intelligent sense of their poetic process; in fact, it enhances it.

The writers of this volume, as if aware of their diverse audience, orient the reader sufficiently so that even someone unversed in a particular subject can enjoy it. The result is an expansion of the reader's horizons and consciousness and a stimulation to complete much needed scholarship, often suggested by the authors at the end of the various essays.

There is much of Anson Piper in this volume. His receptivity and openness to new ideas, tempered by a humanistic appreciation of those things of lasting value are evident in the subject matter and caliber of the essays. His students and colleagues learned from his man whose «histrionic teaching» they recall with affection. Their articles in honor of him are genuinely interesting and entertaining. They embody the maxim, Prodesse et delectare. There is also much of the wisdom of Piper's old friend Cervantes. Though in the work of Diana de Armas Wilson and other contributors, Cervantes does not seem so much old, as enduring. When De Armas Wilson analyzes Las labores de Persiles, a play built about the old custom of a nobleman having the right to a woman's maidenhead, once she had contracted to marry, we see a very modern Cervantes as he «attempts to legitimate an attack on legalized rape» (65) and «radically... writes from the position of woman as interpreter-as subject or knower» (69).

The editors include the Phi Beta Kappa Address Piper delivered at Williams College on the eve of his retirement. In it we again see the influence of Cervantes in the form of El Quijote. Piper urges his audience to see reality for what it is and to be mindful of the madness that can masquerade as rationality. As a corrective he urges the cultivation of basic sanity and one's inner world or spirit.

«He made things fit into place», says former student Russell Salmon of the life and work of Anson Piper. And From Dante to García Márquez: Studies in Romance Literatures and Linguistics is a fitting tribute to this outstanding humanist. The volume is sure also to earn its place -on the shelf of any truly educated person's library.

Jeanne J. Smoot

North Carolina State University

Este libro contiene las siguientes secciones: Prólogo; el Capítulo Primero. Introducción; Capítulo II. La mitología americana y la grecorromana; Capítulo III. Neptuno, progenitor de América; Capítulo IV. Las aves; Capítulo V. Otros aspectos sincréticos; Capítulo VI. Conclusión; y la Bibliografía.

Desde el breve Prólogo, así como en la Introducción, el autor establece lo que dice que es novedad del libro y su carácter exploratorio: se trata de un estudio «a través del sincretismo cultural, religioso-mitológico» (11) de Sor Juana y sus contemporáneos que permita al crítico actual hacer una lectura americana del Barroco de Indias. Se señala la dificultad que tuvieron algunos autores de la época en publicar sus obras; la represión de parte de los detentores de poder dio paso a una auto-censura más o menos encubierta. Aunque no se explica la transición de modo claro, se pasa de estos problemas, que caen dentro de la variada cultura hispana, al desdén tradicional de la cultura europeizante hacia toda manifestación cultural que se relacione con lo hispano, incluyendo al aborigen americano. En esta primera parte el autor, haciendo un aparte dentro de la cuestión básica, específicamente intenta establecer el inicio del Renacimiento en Europa a través de la escuela de traductores de Toledo (14-15). Esto, sin embargo, nos parece un poco confuso, aunque tiene seguramente razón al decir que no se le ha dado la gran importancia que merece. Esa escuela puede entroncarse directamente con el gran impulso filosófico que alcanzó la Universidad de París en las figuras de Alberto Magno, Santo Tomás de Aquino y otros fundadores de la escolástica. Para relacionarla directamente con el inicio del Renacimiento, o sea del humanismo italiano, debía el autor explicar, de modo más preciso, el criterio en que se basa. Más adelante, se explica cómo se aprovecharon los que escribían en el Nuevo Mundo, fueran o no peninsulares, de creencias y personajes de la mitología greco-romana y del credo cristiano que se pudieran relacionar con los de la mitología precortesiana, dando así origen a un sincretismo religioso y cultural en el que, en todo caso, la cultura europea se valoraba siempre por encima de la americana y daba la pauta en cuanto a la consideración de la «verdad».

En el capítulo IV, se tratan a las aves como elementos importantes en los cuadros religiosos, relacionándolas principalmente con El Sueño de Sor Juana y prestándosele al águila una importancia capital sincrética. No hay duda de que el águila era importante en esas creencias, específicamente en la azteca, lo cual formaba parte de la cultura propia americana del Fénix (así como el de la pirámide que utiliza de modo parecido); pero el lector recibe la impresión de que se la considera como la figura fundamental, papel que no tiene el águila en el poema. En El Sueño se la relaciona, o se la identifica (154), como quiere el autor, con el concepto de «subida» de la protagonista, el Alma, en busca de la comprensión del saber del universo. La figura que le da un carácter único al poema, la simboliza el personaje de Faetón reforzado, al final, por el de la Noche, encarnando los dos el concepto novedoso que, hace del esfuerzo por sí mismo razón suficiente para explicar el deseo de la monja y de todo ser humano inteligente, de la comprensión total del universo.

Aunque el autor habla en más de una ocasión de «la naturaleza virgen» de su trabajo en este libro, y de la obligación forzosa, por tanto, de ser corroborativo (163), hay más repeticiones (a veces en las notas y en el texto, véase la [85] de las que hacían falta. En cuanto a ese carácter que se menciona, faltan, por ejemplo, trabajos publicados hace tiempo como los del padre Garibay y de Jacques Lafaye; éste último (en Quetzatcoatl y Guadalupe), se refiere al sincretismo religioso precisamente en relación con Sor Juana y Sigüenza y Góngora. Se menciona el libro de María E. Pérez (publicado en 1975) puntualizando que llegó a sus manos cuando ya casi había terminado su trabajo para este libro. No aparecen en la bibliografía los trabajos de Henríquez Ureña y de Picón Salas, suponemos que por muy fundamentales y conocidos. Aunque resulta ser un aspecto básico de lo que se trata, no se intenta un análisis definitorio de lo que sea el Barroco americano. En este libro, lamentablemente, se nota una precipitación y desorganización que hubieran podido evitarse y que se trasladan en una redacción descuidada (se abusa de los etcéteras, de y/o, de las citas, de la repetición de la misma palabra o familia de palabras en un corto número de líneas, cf. 20-21 y 119) y en la presentación del material de modo farragoso (en ocasiones no se explican o desarrollan lo suficiente las ideas propias o las relaciones que se hacen con las citas que no parecen ser significativas); sin duda el autor hubiera podido sacar de su libro mayor provecho. En el aspecto positivo puede decirse que, con todo, éste es un trabajo meritorio y de muchas lecturas que sí puede ayudar a explorar de modo intensificado el aspecto americano de los escritores que trata y de la Colonia en general.

Georgina Sabat-Rivers

State University of New York, Stony Brook

One of Puerto Ricos most prolific authors, Enrique

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Laguerre's writings are among the island's most respected for their esthetic value as well as their profound insight into the complex nature of 20th-Century Puerto Rican society. Although Laguerre has written in a variety of genres including drama, short story and the essay, Estelle Irizarry's study focuses on his novels, the genre which truly established his literary reputation.

La novelística... is basically a translation of Irizarry's earlier study, Enrique A. Laguerre published in the Twayne Author Series in 1982. Minor differences between her earlier book and La novelística... include one chapter in the former book on Laguerre's short stories, essays and plays; La novelística... omits that chapter and includes instead a study of Laguerre's most recent novel, Infiernos privados published in 1986. Both books provide a useful bibliography as well as frequent references throughout the text to the opinions of other critics. Estelle Irizarry has written extensively on Laguerre with an additional book on his classical La llamarada as well as articles, bibliographies and special editions of his works.

The eleven chapters of La novelística... study Laguerre's novels within the cultural and sociohistorical context of Puerto Rico. The first chapter relates the author's life to the changing economic and social structure of the island, from its agrarian roots at the end of the 19th Century to the urban society of the present. Throughout this study, Irizarry is careful to point out the influence of history and change as they are reflected in Laguerre's works. Thus, for example, she demonstrates how the profound disruptions in the rural economy of coffee and tobacco farms caused by the introduction of U. S. sugar interests are traced in Laguerre's earlier works, including La llamarada, Solar Montoya and Los dedos de la mano; later novels would examine the social and personal upheavals related to the massive emigrations of Puerto Ricans in this century, as in La ceiba en el tiesto, El laberinto and Infiernos privados which also explores the phenomenon of urbanization and its toll on the individual. Other novels studied are El 30 de febrero, La resaca, Cauce sin río, El fuego y su aire and Los amos benévolos. According to Irizarry, «Laguerre ha sido testigo de profundos cambios en la sociedad puertorriqueña y, como Galdós en la España del siglo diecinueve, se ha propuesto retratarlos en sus novelas, respondiendo a su circunstancia de puertorriqueño de siglo XX de modo afirmativo con su vida y con el ejercicio de un arte que es a la vez responsable y muy personal».

As the subtitle of this study indicates, however, not only does Irizarry situate the various novels (studied in individual chapters) within their historical and political context; she is also careful to establish Laguerre's works within a European and Latin American literary tradition. There are references not only to Galdós, for example, but also to Cervantes, Unamuno, and other European authors, as well as Latin American writers considered by Irizarry as possible influences in Laguerre's novels. And, although Laguerre has been referred to by the critic Concha Meléndez as «un novelista abarcador de la realidad puertorriqueña», Irizarry emphasizes the fact that Laguerre's literary importance extends beyond the island's borders: «Con la publicación de sus novelas más recientes, El fuego y su aire, Los amos benévolos e Infiernos privados, Laguerre pone en evidencia su dominio de recursos técnicos, colocándolo al lado de los otros grandes novelistas de la Nueva Narrativa Hispanoamericana. Está atento a lo puertorriqueño, lo hispanoamericano y lo universal», (15). Laguerre's use of symbolism and metaphor as well as his recurrent utilization of legend, myth and folklore, both local and universal, are carefully examined in her analysis of the novels.

La novelística de Enrique A. Laguerre is a carefully-written study with useful and often enlightening information for those who wish to understand in some depth the novels of this important Latin American author.

Margarite Fernández Olmos

Brooklyn College, CUNY

At a time when women's studies continue to raise consciousness, Gloria Gálvez Lira provides a feminist view of the writings of María Luisa Bombal. As early as the 1930's, Bombal was promoting the feminist cause in her prose works. Gálvez Lira addresses this theme, as manifested in Bombal's employment of the interchange of fantasy and reality as a literary vehicle.

The text is divided into an introduction, four analytical chapters, a conclusion, an appendix and a bibliography. The first chapter gives a biographical sketch, elements of which have been substantiated in a personal interview with the author (reproduced in the appendix). Chapter II places Bombal within an historical framework. Texts of work laws and references in Catholic Church doctrine which signal the subservience of women provide insight into the condition of Chilean women some fifty years ago.

The next two chapters present detailed analysis of Bombal's short stories and novels. Chapter III, which treats «El árbol», «La historia de María Griselda» and «Las islas nuevas», focuses on the flow of reality into fantasy. Perceptive footnotes compensate for the occasional superfluity of plot description. Comparisons of «El árbol» to Carpentier's El acoso and to Ibsen's A Doll's House, for example, offer useful commentary. Chapter IV provides an in-depth examination of Bombal's novels, La última niebla and La amortajada. Among the comparisons made is one between Ana María of La amortajada and the protagonist of La muerte

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de Artemio Cruz, both of whom experience a «reality» somewhere between life and death.

The conclusion, Chapter V, unites the major points of the analysis. An overall definition of woman, as portrayed by Bombal's female protagonists, is attained: each is confused, frustrated and alienated. Alone with her thoughts, Bombal's protagonist resorts to interior monologue to express her anguish. At the same time, the protagonist employs fantasy to «create a new man» who is capable of fulfilling her needs. According to Gálvez Lira, the validity of Bombal's definition today justifies the reclassification of the author's works as universal, rather than regional literature.

The only negative aspects of the study are occasional repetition of quotations and numerous typographical errors. Nevertheless, these minor flaws are far offset by the impeccable research which the work reflects. The bilingual footnotes are insightful, revealing a broad knowledge of world literature and psychology. The bibliography is thorough and up-to-date, characteristic of the diligent preparation noted throughout the study. Finally, the text is readable and holds interest.

María Luisa Bombal: Realidad y fantasía will most certainly appeal to a broad range of readers, among whom are those interested in Chilean prose, Latin American literature, feminism and the human condition. Gálvez Lira contends that Bombal's avant-garde writings helped initiate change in attitudes toward women, both in Chile and in all of Latin America. Based upon this study, one might well agree. At the very least, one gains a greater appreciation of the universality of Bombal's works.

Virginia Brownell Levine

SUNY College at Curtland

El libro consta de una introducción, seis capítulos, conclusión y bibliografía. En la introducción se hace una revisión de las tendencias artísticas y literarias europeas en boga a principios del siglo XX y se examinan los distintos presupuestos de cada uno de los movimientos. Pasa a discutir la situación de las letras en Hispanoamérica y específicamente en Chile. Magali Fernández se propone mostrar como «la obra de esta autora contribuyó a "enterrar al criollismo"; estudiar de qué forma influyeron en ella los "ismos" europeos y concederle el verdadero lugar que se merece entre los otros precursores...» (18).

El capítulo primero da detalles biográficos de la autora. En el capítulo segundo, «Temática de María Luisa Bombal», se hace una revisión del papel de la mujer en la sociedad desde sus orígenes. Estudia las preocupaciones filosóficas y específicamente la conexión entre las que aparecen en las obras de Bombal y A puerta cerrada y La náusea de Jean Paul Sartre. Se propone indagar cómo absorbe la escritora chilena las distintas corrientes europeas y en qué medida sus personajes reflejan las inquietudes que agobian al hombre del siglo XX.

En el capítulo tercero, «Los personajes de las novelas de María Luisa Bombal», Fernández estudia los personajes femeninos, el papel de la sociedad en la conformación de un ideal femenino que no le hace justicia a la mujer y que por el contrario la niega, la deja sin opciones y la condena al ensueño, al delirio y a la alucinación distorsionadora. Primeramente estudia los personajes de La última niebla y luego los de La amortajada.

El capítulo cuarto, «El discurso narrativo (Estructuras y técnicas estilísticas)», empieza con una síntesis de las diferentes clasificaciones aplicables al género novelístico. Fernández estudia lo que titula «Mundo novelesco» de María Luisa Bombal dedicado a La última niebla y destaca los elementos innovadores de ésta. Estudia la función del narrador en la novela realista del siglo XIX en contraposición al usado por Bombal. Entre los otros recursos innovadores cita la economía verbal en la representación del personaje, el uso de la elipsis en la narración, el uso de tiempos verbales y la eliminación de datos no esenciales, la selección de lo narrado en virtud de la subjetividad, el narrador y el uso del tiempo presente. También se destaca la forma subjetiva de selección: organización y presentación del material y la alteración cronológica de los sucesos. El estudio de La amortajada examina el punto de vista y el uso del monólogo interior indirecto en tercera persona.

El capítulo quinto, «Símbolos y mitos en la obra de María Luisa Bombal», explora los símbolos utilizando fuentes junguianas, incluyendo la niebla, el silencio, la lluvia, el espacio cerrado de la casa, la oscuridad, el fuego, el estanque, el bosque, la naturaleza, y otros. Comenta La amortajada a la vez que hace una revisión de los distintos enfoques de lo femenino.

El capítulo sexto, «Otras obras de María Luisa Bombal», está dedicado a «El árbol», «Islas nuevas», «Lo secreto», «La historia de María Griselda», «Trenzas», «Mar, cielo y tierra». Aquí se ofrecen los argumentos y se establecen semejanzas y diferencias entre estos relatos y las novelas, La amortajada y La última niebla.

El libro tiene algunas erratas entre las que se encuentran: mitilogía por mitología (28), aserto por asierto (49), aventajados por avejentados (49), ijemplo por ejemplo (62), cento por cuento (128). También se observan algunos errores de estilo como «llegan hasta a decir» (11) por hasta llegan a decir. Hay algunas inconsistencias entre las cuales se puede mencionar el que a veces se ofrece el nombre del crítico y otras veces la inicial del nombre.

Elena M. Martínez

New York University

Cruz attempts to prove that the Spanish American short story, especially that of Cortázar, fulfills the requirements for fantastic literature laid down by Tzvetan Todorov (which, as Cruz notes, was based solely on a reading of nineteenth-century texts). The concept of the neofantastic as such derives from Cortázar's description of his own work, as filtered through Jaime Alazraki's criticism. Cortázar viewed his own fantastic stories as something of a response to the vestiges of naive realism -one might say reductionism- that still appear in philosophical and scientific thought today.

Todorov states, «lo fantástico es la vacilación experimentada por un ser que no conoce más que las leyes naturales, frente a un acontecimiento aparentemente sobrenatural». Therefore an important mark of fantastic literature is the irreconcilable doubt with which the reader is left at the end of a story, concerning whether something paranormal took place or whether there is after all a rational explanation. Cruz first examines some Spanish American works that in her opinion serve to lead towards the full flowering of the fantastic in Cortázar. She devotes a good deal of space to María Luisa Bombal's La última niebla, noting that the question of whether the protagonist's affair with a certain man actually took place or not is never resolved, and therefore leaves the reader in the sort of indecision that Todorov requires of the literature of the fantastic. She concludes that the work belongs to his category of the «pure fantastic».

One must question, though, whether Bombal's story qualifies despite this criterion. An adulterous affair is anything but paranormal, and the fantasy element lies only in the question whether it took place in objective reality or only in the mind of the protagonist. The same question might be asked concerning «Círculo rojo» one of the Cortázar stories Cruz examines in detail. In it, a male protagonist follows a woman out of a strange restaurant when he thinks she is in danger. She disappears, whereupon he returns and is brutally murdered. In Cruz's analysis much is made of whether these events partake of the nature of ordinary reality or not. The point, though, would seem to be that at the conclusion the woman is revealed to be the narrator, and as such can imagine, and narrate, anything she wants, as is the case with Bombal's protagonist. Todorov states that words now possess the autonomy that things used to have; perhaps it would be more fruitful to follow through on that thought rather than questioning whether something «really happened», even within a literary text.

Cruz and many others whom she quotes define fantastic literature as the irruption of «lo insólito» into the normal order of being. One wonders, then, about pre-modern societies in which what the West calls supernatural events are taken for granted. By the same token, few would fail to categorize Borges's «Las ruinas circulares» or «La biblioteca de Babel» as fantastic literature. In them, however, there is scarcely any «normal» order of being into which the paranormal intrudes. The entire structure is fantastic. On the other hand, «El Aleph» fits Todorov's and Cruz's categories perfectly, in that Borges carefully constructs a framework of pedestrian reality into which he then interjects the Aleph. At the end the narrator playfully concludes that the Aleph may or may not be genuine, thereby leaving the reader in doubt.

Cruz has done this genre a great service by bringing to bear an impressive amount of research on it. Clearly, though, much more remains to be done by way of clarifying definitions and categories.

William L. Siemens

Houghton College

In her study of one of the most complex and difficult novels in contemporary Spanish American fiction, Cerezo aproaches El obsceno pájaro de la noche (1970) as a novel about novel writing. Such a classification places Donoso's work as a forerunner to more recent studies of the art of novel writing offered by Isabel Allende (in Eva Luna) and Mario Vargas Llosa (in La tía Julia y el escribidor and El hablador). The Cerezo study is a revised version of her doctoral dissertation presented to the University of Toronto in 1983.

The first chapter is an assessment of Donoso's debt to Henry James in general and to his The Turn of the Screw in particular. It also explores the conflict between the distrust and the authority which the reader assigns to Humberto/Mudito, the putative narrator of the novel. Later chapters explore the unique autobiographical characteristics of El obsceno pájaro. Basing her thesis on the Donoso quotation, «everything in my novels is autobiographical» (145), Cerezo explores the inseparable line between the reality of Donoso's experience and his created fiction. She concludes that it is primarily an autobiography of his nightmares, fantasies, and fears. The narrative disorder mentioned by numerous critics is successfully countered by Cerezo as the rational ordering of the chaos of madness. The Donoso/Humberto/Mudito narrative therefore materializes as an adventure in the writing process as the search for both form and identity takes command of the writer(s). In order for the reader to accept this logic, Cerezo insists, it is necessary to accept the abdication of the original writer and to accept Humberto, and ultimately Mudito, as the protagonist-narrators of the novel. In this complex substitution process Humberto/ Mudito inherit the writing talent of their creator, Donoso.

Cerezo points out a kind of final irony in the

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substitution process. Once the writer(s) of El obsceno pájaro de la noche have committed the creatures of their imagination to paper, the invented characters take on both a life and a permanence of their own which will survive the death of their respective creator(s). The act of writing, therefore, comes to represent the anguish of the writer as the realization comes that to continue to write is to draw nearer to the fatal moment of death, but that to cease to write is also a way of dying.

The basic thesis of this study is sound and well-written, and the book will certainly become a part of the standard Donoso bibliography. Cerezo has delineated a critical point of view of an admittedly complex work of fiction, and she has carefully documented her conclusions. Her bibliography is extensive and well-ordered, but readers of this study may question her failure to update the bibliography to include the many Donoso studies published after 1983. One may also question her reasons for not including the text of the two interviews Donoso granted her as an appendix to the volume.

Harley D. Oberhelman

Texas Tech University

One of Mexico's most distinguished modern writers, Elena Garro, makes a most suitable subject for a scholarly monograph of the type attempted by Delia Galván Starting with her impressive first novel, Los recuerdos del porvenir (1963), Garro has consistently produced a complex body of prose and drama worthy of sustained attention, yet critical response has lagged behind the outpouring of scholarship devoted to other prominent men and women in Mexican letters. At the same time, we must recognize the difficulty of undertaking a critical project on the recent works of Elena Garro, whose fictional worlds may be described as hallucinatory labyrinths or disorienting galleries of voices. It is precisely this style that has accorded her a place alongside some of the best contemporary Latin American writers who also are masters of the ever-shifting text, such as José Donoso, Clarice Lispector, and Ernesto Sábato, to name a few. Galván's monograph is presented undisguised as a doctoral dissertation, which of course does not automatically imply that it lacks sufficient merits to be issued in book form. However, in this case, we must regret the haste with which this study has been published, for it is very much in need of structural reorganization and stylistic editing. Galván views the recent fiction of Garro as a significant departure from the author's earlier works, and thus she concentrates her analysis on three novels, (Testimonios sobre Mariana, Reencuentro de personajes, La casa junto al río), one short story collection (Andamos huyendo Lola), and one play (Felipe Ángeles), all published in a five-year span. Her study touches on dozens of critical approaches in an attempt to uncover the structure of these works. Galván examines Garro's texts as autobiography, mystery stories, testimonial literature, and gothic novel; further, she takes up issues of intertextuality, metafiction, self-referentiality, exile, the fantastic, and the archetypal hero. She contends, however, that the unifying factor in Garro's later work is feminism, a view she justifies by stating: «Aunque ella dice que no es feminista, su obra evidentemente lo es porque anhela para las mujeres una condición de seres humanos totales» (p. 10).

This project as Galván has conceived it is so broad in scope and so loosely defined that a satisfactory result would be fairly difficult to attain, and unfortunately this indeed is the case. The primary flaw in this monograph is the myriad of quotations that permeate the critical commentary, or, rather, that perforate it: at times Galván's own analysis must be read as isolated lines interspersed among the multiple citations. Galván's critical style returns to a set pattern whereby she suggests a possible topic for exploration, and then resorts to a host of critics who have dealt with this problem in other literary texts. In discussing the notion of exile in La casa junto al río: for example, she first turns to Kessel Schwartz's work on Juan Goytisolo, and then to Michael Ugarte's study on Max Aub, and through Ugarte arrives at a citation from Margaret Ferguson on Plato and Saint Augustine. This repeated chain of citations may be distracting, but there is a far more problematic method at work here: Galván continuously looks to critics who discuss major theoretical issues, but she shows little awareness of having pondered those theories herself. Thus we come to Jacques Derrida and Gérard Genette (whom Galván calls «Jean») by way of Robert Spires, to hermeneutics and psychoanalysis via Terry Eagleton, and so forth. After providing the reader with a sampling of quotations (mostly in English, with some in French) from what would be excellent sources under other circumstances, the author applies her findings to Garro's texts in equally problematic ways. After the circuitous route through critical writings on exile, for example, Galván concludes with respect to La casa junto al río: «Lo que quiere la autora es que la sociedad mejore y ha escogido para ilustrar su idea el tema del exilio que además de afectar a hombres y mujeres, es paradigma de la sensibilidad de muchas mujeres ante los hombres» (162). If we are to return to authorial intention as a base for analysis , must we go by the paths of post-structuralist theory to arrive there?

But Galván succeeds on several fronts in this study, despite its flaws. When she does focus on the texts at hand, she often assists the reader in disentangling the tortuous narrative strands characteristic of Garro's hermetic prose. The directions to which she points -intertextuality, genre permutations,

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feminism -certainly are worthy of further exploration with regard to the works of this outstanding Mexican writer. Many of the conclusions that Galván reaches seems defensible, although the manner in which she draws them may not be as convincing. Finally, the monograph stands as testimony to the vital cycle of Elena Garro's fiction from recent years and charts possible future courses of study. We should mention that the text contains numerous errors in its inconsistent documentation style, and in accents and orthography (especially in the French quotations); the monograph concludes with a printer's error, a cryptic sentence that is cut off in midstream, which we might mistake for adulatory imitation of Garro's own open-ended style if we did not know better.

Rosemary Geisdorfer Feal

The University of Rochester

El estudio de la producción del novelista Severo Sarduy continúa atrayendo la atención de académicos norteamericanos. Los trabajos han sido completos e impresionantes, con Roberto González Echevarría y su libro La ruta de Sarduy a la vanguardia de otros especialistas. Sin embargo, resalta la ausencia de un canon teórico que abarque las más novedosas posiciones críticas internacionales que son precisamente el centro intelectual de la producción total de Severo Sarduy. Óscar Montero en The Name Game viene a llenar este vacío teórico. El libro es una versión abreviada de su tesis doctoral, presentada en la Universidad de North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Montero, armado de un impresionante cuerpo crítico, examina particularmente la novela De donde son los cantantes, haciendo énfasis en sus experimentos formales. El resultado es una verdadera joya para la crítica literaria latinoamericana.

De donde son los cantantes (México, 1967) representa la máxima expresión del barroquismo cubano, y, en especial, de la influencia de las lecturas de su autor en el seminario con el teórico francés Roland Barthes. The Name Game se divide en tres capítulos y muy completas bibliografías de material primario-secundario. El propósito de su autor, aunque muy sencillo en principio, es trazar la producción de Sarduy, desde su relación inicial con la Revolución cubana a sus contactos intelectuales en Francia con el grupo post-existencialista de la revista literaria Tel Quel. Entre estas coordenadas temporales, Montero presenta consideraciones teóricas variadas, como la finalidad de la obra literaria en la sociedad moderna, la hermenéutica de las metáforas y tropos literarios y el papel socio cultural del escritor contemporáneo. En el caso concreto de Sarduy, su obra se conforma al entendimiento de una metodología inherente en su preparación intelectual: sus extensas lecturas de los más destacados teóricos modernos -Benveniste, Jakobson, Lacan y Kristeva. Otro plano temporal y espacial completa la cosmovisión en Sarduy: «el aspecto existencial [proveniente tanto de la Revolución cubana como de su relación con el grupo Tel Quel y la alienación histórica de un escritor que se desprende de su sujeto, una alienación con su propia tradición, la cual pudiera anteceder el concepto mismo de la historia» (15). Para el lector en la toma de conciencia del texto este proceso se convierte en verdadero juego intelectual. Como bien apunta Montero, la lectura de Sarduy provee una oportunidad de análisis lingüísticos: Saussure (significado-significante), teorías freudianas (el desarrollo y el desprendimiento de la personalidad), Miguel de Unamuno (el concepto de la «realidad» de los personajes literarios), Lacan (la estructura metafórica del lenguaje) y François Wahl y sus teorías deconstructivas. Sobra apuntar que Montero desarrolla a cabalmente estos apuntes críticos, en profundas discusiones sobre la finalidad del texto literario moderno.

El libro está constituido en tres secciones o capítulos semi-independientes sobre De donde son los cantantes. El primer capítulo sitúa la obra como una «novela de lenguaje». Montero coloca a Sarduy en un movimiento que busca alterar el determinismo histórico lineal y entrar en una exploración de otras tradiciones, «afianzadas no en la esencia humana del lenguaje, sino en el acceso a cualquier lenguaje, o sistema de signos, que es la marca particular de un individuo» (42). El segundo capítulo se concentra en la caracterización de la «noción de un texto tomado como un "lugar", un "cuerpo" reconstituido por las leyes reguladoras del proceso de la escritura que el autor acciona» (74). Finalmente, la última sección reacciona más de cerca al texto sarduyano, comentando observaciones particulares, entre las más destacadas el uso del falo como un «proceso de metonimia, de intercambio y continuidad» (116).

The Name Game es un libro clave para el estudio de la obra de Severo Sarduy, especialmente a nivel de estudios avanzados, tanto en programas de literatura hispánica, como en departamentos de literaturas comparadas y crítica literaria. Montero logra su propósito de promover la figura de tan controversial autor al nivel intelectual que se merece. Recomiendo sin reservaciones este excelente libro crítico.

Rafael Ocasio

Agnes Scott College

The thesis of this book is that Isabel Allende's exemplary use of magical realism, particularly in La casa de los espíritus, transforms a painful historical moment -the overthrow of the government

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of Salvador Allende- into a transcendent work of magical realism. To highlight his thesis, Marcelo Coddou places the Chilean novelist squarely in the tradition of Alejo Carpentier and García Márquez, writers for whom «lo real maravilloso» is deeply rooted in Latin American reality.

García Márquez's observation that «no hay en mis novelas una línea que no esté basada en la realidad» becomes a guiding principle for Coddou, who demonstrates the relevance of the Colombian master's statement to Allende's craft. Coddou points out Allende's ability to fuse the historical and the imaginary by reducing the marvelous to the normal everyday sphere, and by using hyperbole to magnify everyday events. Coddou acknowledges Allende's debt to her Latin American mentors, but he also takes pains to point out her originality and to refute criticisms that her work is extravagant and that her characters lack autonomy. In the process of claiming for Allende a secure niche in the magical realist pantheon, Coddou gives a broadly socio-political interpretation to the terms «reality» and «magical realism».

Para leer a Isabel Allende is a useful work. It does, however, suffer from repetition, excessive justification of the author's concept of literature, and unnecessary definition of terms. Coddou's view of literature, while not fashionable in some circles, is generally speaking mainstream; thus, he does not have to make a case for including words like «history» and «biography» in his critical lexicon.

Although Coddou's study focuses on Allende's magical realism in La casa de los espíritus, it also treats other important components of Allende's writing, and it contains interesting observations on the current state of literary criticism. Additional aspects of Allende's craft that Coddou discusses include considerations of biography, history, gender, and narrative structure. For example, in his treatment of the various narrative voices in the novel, Coddou shows how Allende employs differing perspectives, memories, notes, and transcriptions of notes to lend verisimilitude to her story. In this sense, he says, Allende intended for La casa de los espíritus to produce the convincing effect of a genuine document.

Coddou devotes considerable space to Allende's view of the traditional patriarchal social system in Chile as expressed through her women characters. They are strong figures who, as Coddou points out, demand the right to be subjects of the discourse which until now has been enunciated against them. This is an interesting point, but it seems that Coddou bends Allende's portrayal of her women characters to his own views on social class and the male-dominated social system -namely, that the subordination of women is based on ideology rather than sex.

Coddou's use of the term «ideology» is marxist in that he regards economic injustice, not discrimination based on sex, as the root cause of the exploitation of women. Thus, the «sexplotación» in a patriarchal system is inseparable from the «superexplotación» of the working class. The author's argument that Allende's novel demonstrates the truth of this assertion seems overdrawn. More plausible is Coddou's general assertion that the purpose of Allende's feminism, indeed the main purpose of her work, is «luchar por una sociedad más justa y humana».

Coddou censures those critics who make literature a laboratory study of «significantes» and omit the subject -humankind. Such students of literature lose sight of the work as an «instrumento de construcción humanista». To Coddou, criticism should not consist of abstract theories that apply to no specific text. If it did, criticism would be no more ruminating than a generic horoscope.

Coddou says that the problem with «official» criticism is that it has dehistoricized cathartic testimonial novels like La casa de los espíritus, either by removing them from their historical, social, and even literary context by highlighting innocuous «universal» qualities, or by limiting them to a strictly structuralist analysis. Whether inspired by political ideology or ivory tower theories, such criticism is unable to deal with «superreferencial» works like Allende's that question the past in order to understand, criticize, and alter the present.

Despite its flaws, this study is a useful contribution, for it sheds light on Allende's art as a richly textured referential discourse, and on her epoch as one whose drama is most effectively communicated in the magical realist mode.

Denis Lynn Heyck

Mundelein College

Interpretations of authors' works based on their biographies, stated aims, and self-analyses long ago ceased to dominate critical discussion of literature. Critics have for the most part become aware of the «genetic» and «intentional» fallacies, and this awareness has generally caused readers to exercise a good deal of caution when attempting to make connections between an author's life and work. We also know, of course, that this sense of caution has not meant either the abandonment of biographical considerations or the negation of inquiry into the relations between authors' stated literary intentions or explications and their works. Indeed, some currents in modern criticism have shown the potential value of certain types of biographically or psychologically oriented projects, in some of which critics have also elaborated the methods and theories underlying their readings.

Jorgelina Corbatta's book on Manuel Puig attempts to follow in the line of one of those methods -that of Charles Mauron's «psycho-criticism»- and thereby to legitimize a reading of

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Puig's novels in terms of the author's own statements about his life and literary aims. More specifically, in Mito personal y mitos colectivos en las novelas de Manuel Puig, Corbatta proposes to discuss seven of Puig's novels in terms of both the «mitos personales» («las obsesiones profundas y específicamente personales del autor») and the «mitos colectivos» («los elementos del mundo contemporáneo de los que se vale para trazar la psicología de los personajes, tejer la intriga, hacer avanzar la acción») that have formed his writing (5). The aim, as stated explicitly at the beginning of the study, «es demostrar que las novelas de Puig son ante todo el resultado de una liberación de sus «demonios» -especie de catarsis creativa de una situación de infancia que retorna obsesiva y conforma el «mito personal»- pero también constituyen el producto de la lúcida y deliberada manipulación, de su parte, de materiales y técnicas provenientes de la cultura contemporánea» (5).

Corbatta's readings generally follow this double path, cataloguing what appear to be the elements that correspond to the «personal» and «collective» currents in each text. The novels are grouped into three categories, which follow the chronology of their publication and the geography of their fictional locales. La traición de Rita Hayworth and Boquitas pintadas are discussed under the heading «El ciclo de Coronel Vallejos» (chapter 2), The Buenos Aires Affair and El beso de la mujer araña are identified as «El ciclo de Buenos Aires» (chapter 3), and Pubis angelical, Maldición eterna a quien lea estas páginas, and Sangre de amor correspondido are presented as «El ciclo americano» (chapter 4). The study concludes with a very brief summary of the aims and contents of the three main chapters. Privileging in the end the development of the personal myth over the collective in Puig's novels, Corbatta also proposes a classification of his texts in terms of the lesser or greater degree of authorial identification with the fictional protagonists (112-17).

Though the readings are ostensibly based on Mauron's psycho-critical model and, it is declared, are also meant to work with, for example, Claude Lévi-Strauss's notion of bricolage and Gillo Dorfles's ideas on kitsch and pop art, the study develops principally as a thematic gloss on each novel. The brief discussions of the texts enumerate themes and paraphrase a good deal of the novels' anecdotal material; they also briefly describe the salient technical features and cultural models of each work. Extensive use is made of selected interview materials, which provide authorial statements not only about Puig's biography but also about his intended aims in writing and his explanations of particular texts.

In the end, the study disappoints our expectations for an insightful addition to Puig criticism (which might also include an exhaustive and accurate biography of the author) or for a demonstration of how attention can profitably be paid to the relation between authorial biography and literary production. If it had assimilated better the method of Mauron and the other theoretical and critical sources cited in the introductory chapter, incorporated more of the existing Puig criticism cited in the study's own bibliography, and questioned the accuracy (if not relevance) of the author's statements about his own texts, Corbatta's book might have had more success in demonstrating the critical possibilities for reading Puig's novels solely in terms of the «mito personal y mitos colectivos» It might also have acknowledged the limitations of such a reading.

Lucille Kerr

University of Southern California

A companion volume to a major retrospective of Argentine cinema scheduled at the National Film Theatre in London in 1988-89, this book is an important addition to the growing bibliography on Latin American cinema, while at the same time offering a comprehensive view of contemporary culture in Argentina. To achieve this double objective John King (University of Warwick) and Nissa Torrents (University College, London) have assembled a series of essays by American, Argentine, and European scholars reviewing the major developments in Argentine cinema over the past fifty years. King's «The Social and Cultural Context» and Nick Caistor's «Argentina: 1976-1983» provide the necessary historical frame of reference, without which many of the issues raised by the films would -in King's words- «make little sense to a non-Argentine audience» (2).

King opens the volume with a brilliant synthesis of Argentine history from mid-nineteenth century to the 1980s. This study makes helpful references to other essays in the book that more fully address the issues he raises, as well as to films that readers can use to enhance their knowledge of the period. To make the «Argentine paradox» intelligible in a few pages, King concentrates on outlining the principal economic, social, and political developments that form the backdrop for later cultural and aesthetic battles. A good example of this effective technique is provided by his discussion of the historical roots of a theme -the dichotomy civilization/barbarism- seen in Sarmiento's Facundo in 1845 and still present in the twentieth century in films like María Luisa Bemberg's Camila (1984) and Fernando Solana's La hora de los hornos (1966-68).

King's coverage of Argentine historical developments related to culture and specifically to cinema stops at 1983, when Raúl Alfonsín's election victory opened a new democratic phase after the long military nightmare begun in 1976. Nick Caistor (Latin

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American Researcher with the British magazine Index on Censorship) goes back to that year in his paper to examine the dictatorship of the generals and to explain how the campaign of systematic murder unleashed under the guise of a war against terrorism targeted culture with terrible consequences: kidnapping, torture, and killing of artists, writers, journalists, professors, intellectuals, filmmakers; censorship and self-censorship; internal and external exile.

Jorge Miguel Couselo (Argentine film critic and film historian), Ana López (Tulane University, New Orleans), and Nissa Torrents discuss the development of the Argentine cinema from the 1930s to the present. In his essay, «Argentine Cinema from Sound to the Sixties», Couselo concentrates on the ups and downs of an industry weakened by a poor system of production and distribution and historically subject to the (often relative) advantages and disadvantages of screen quotas, government subsidies, and regulations turned into taming devices during the various authoritarian regimes in the four decades under his scrutiny. Couselo's account certainly justifies the priority he gives to the consideration of intrastructural matters over artistic and a esthetic concerns. As he summarizes in the closing paragraph of his paper, it is «indisputable that a new cinema implies a search for a new production and exhibition methods» (36).

The contextual and structural framework is also central to Ana López's «Argentina, 1955-1976; The Film Industry and Its Margins». The heterogeneity of Argentine cinema in the 1960s and 1970s -a blend of industrial commercial cinema, clandestine political filmmaking, cosmopolitan cinema d'auteur, and socially-conscious documentary work, that was decisive for the evolution of both Argentine cinema and the new Latin American film- is analyzed by López to pinpoint a distinctive feature of the Latin American film culture during those years: «an attempt to develop new and politically conscious social functions for the cinematic medium» (73). In Argentina, however, harsh political repression and severe censorship cancelled the aspirations for a news ideologically-committed cinema. When the military dictatorship came to an end in December, 1983, the momentum had been lost and other, milder forms of politically-oriented cinema emerged from the drive towards a pluralistic and moderate society.

«Contemporary Argentine Cinema», by Nissa Torrents, begins with a brief, thought-provoking account of how films of the 1960s and 1970s related to the cultural-historical debate in the nation and to the main political events of those two troubled decades. She then assesses the annual production from 1981-1982 (when the military relaxed their grip on society and began looking for an out after their defeat in the Malvinas-Falkland war) to 1986, when the industry enjoyed an exceptional year «due to the quality of the films produced, their impact abroad, and the arrival of new directors whose first films showed unusual achievements» (110). Torrents does not share López's opinion that the militant film of the 1960s and the 1970s contributed strongly to defining the New Latin American cinema. Torrents thinks that it is film critics and academics from the capitalist world who believe that «films from Latin America, Asia, and Africa contribute directly to the revolutionary struggle for the transformation of the political, social, and economic problems that beset the Third World» (93). According to Torrents, critics employing the theories of the 1960s to explain Argentine cinema «are in danger of bringing the wrong conceptual tools to bear on the present reality», because «Argentine cinema does not fit neatly into a revolutionary utopic vision» (96). López's and Torrents's essays complement each other insofar as they cover contiguous periods and give different weight to the elements that characterize contemporary Argentine cinema as seen within the framework of Latin American cinema.

The volume also includes an essay by Simon Collier (University of Essex) on «Carlos Gardel and the Cinema» that scholars and readers interested in Latin American popular culture and music will find particularly worthwhile; a revealing «Afterword» by Manuel Antín, film-maker and Director of the Argentine Instituto Nacional de Cinematografía; and interviews with novelist and scriptwriter Beatriz Guido (by Torrents), and filmmakers María Luisa Bemberg (by Sheila Whitaker, Head of Programming at the National Film Theatre and Director of the London Film Festival) and Bebe Kamin (by King). Guido -in what must have been one of the last interviews she conceded before her death in March, 1988- gives valuable information about the life and work of her late husband, film-maker Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, and about her own work and life. Especially interesting are her remarks (and Bemberg's own commentaries) on the condition of women as intellectual workers in contemporary Argentina. Kamin's comments on the importance new Argentine directors attach to international recognition and co-production allow the reader to evaluate the present and the future of a cinema that, although extremely rich in talent and artistic creativity, is «beset by economic problems and condemned by material conditions» (127).

The volume closes with a selective but extremely informative Bibliography, and Filmographies of twenty directors featured in the 1988-1989 program of Argentine cinema screened at the National Film Theatre. Well-organized, superbly researched and edited, The Garden of the Forking Paths: Argentine Cinema is a valuable contribution to the understanding of the state of film culture in contemporary Argentina and Latin America.

Andrés Avellaneda

University of Florida

The editors announce early on that this book is definitely not intended as an «anthology», noting that they have omitted much important criticism on their subject. But what they have included provides in a manageable and relatively unintimidating format an excellent overview of Brazilian cinema in its various movements and salient works. Yet it does not commit the sin of the survey, as the individual parts are not lost in the whole. This book will serve the scholar already working within the field, both as a ready reference and as a handy digest of criticism, while for the non-specialist it remains readily accessible and highly informative as a pointed and practical introduction. All the articles are in English -though some knowledge of Portuguese is useful-, making it particularly appropriate for American students of cinema. In light of the frequent comparisons they make between Brazilian film and that of other national traditions, the editors are careful neither to idealize nor to minimize their subject. They direct themselves to a general, English-speaking audience who will appreciate the similarities and differences they point up between Brazilian and other cinematic «realities» (especially the American). They provide a mof the «early years» of Brazilian cinema, focusing on the extensive foreign influences as well as the native dynamics, both creative and commercial. This chapter is called «The Shape of Brazilian Film History» and, in fact, Stam and Johnson give their subject body and substance, an almost tactile presence that goes beyond the merely academic or culturally arcane, so that readers at least somewhat appraised of film history in general can come to grips with the topics at hand. They make their movies move and set the pictures they depict in motion. Even the numerous black-and-white stills excerpted from the various films discussed in this and other chapters add to the texture and «flow» of the study, enhancing its visual and concrete dimension. The next section of the book is a selection of pieces by various filmmakers speaking about themselves, their art, and, on occasion, each other. It is an ruminating cross-section which, if it omits certain articles and authors, includes a serviceable number. The focus here is on theory, as the title suggests, though the actual praxis is never neglected, as all the writers are practicing artists hypothesizing and/or explicating what they do, have done, or want to do on film. That is, the editors nave selected pieces where the critical hypotheses to not obstruct the filmic medium, but rather illuminate it. Many of the selections here are polemical and provocative, raising aesthetic, political, or commercial issues not necessarily familiar to American students of the cinema. Often they seem to speak in a language that is more visual than verbal, alluding rather than defining, suggesting rather than categorizing and confining. The next section of the book focuses still more intently on the films per se. These articles, many by the editors themselves, deal with individual classics of the «cinema novo and beyond», providing detailed plot summaries and critical commentary of a number of individual works and the contexts they represent. The final section of the book, entitled «Special Topics and Polemics» indeed raises a number of interesting and controversial questions, concerning women filmmakers, music and film, the documentary, and the ties of Brazil and Hollywood, among others. It is varied reading which offers tantalizing insights, though, by its very nature, it has no common format, beyond the fact that all the pieces focus somehow on Brazilian films and filmmaking. This chapter is representative of the entire book, which also piques the interest without resorting to an «overkill» of historical or critical detail. It leaves the reader with a desire to know -and especially to see- more, realizing that further investigation of the subject will truly be rewarding because of the often superior quality, the distinctive aesthetic (and even intellectual) appeal, and the cultural flavor of the films discussed. Brazilian Cinema, while appealing to aficionado and expert alike, surely will win new admirers, if not devotees, of Brazilian cinema in the English-speaking world.

Kevin S. Larsen

University of Wyoming

In the introduction, the author explains that the book follows the curriculum guidelines established by Spain's Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia. It is assumed by the reviewer that the book is used in a required course called Lengua y Literatura Españolas taught at the high school level.

The book is divided into four major units: I. Argumentation, II. Description, III. Narration, and IV. Dialogue. Each unit contains numerous reading selections and pre- and post-reading exercises called «actividades». Some of the «actividades» provide meaningful learning experiences, such as teaching the reader to be thoughtful about a text, , «Extrae la idea principal del texto y las ideas

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secundarias» (15), or attempting to broaden the reader's vocabulary, , «Sustituye los sustantivos del texto por otros sinónimos y después por otros antónimos, siempre que sea posible» (15). Yet most of the exercises require nothing more than tedious and repetitious «linguistic analysis»: «Clasifica todas las palabras del texto como partes de la oración» or «Analiza los formantes (lexemas y morfemas) de los sustantivos que aparecen en el texto» (15); «Sustituye las formas verbales en pasado por formas en presente y los presentes en futuros» (143). These kinds of exercises are found throughout the book. This mix of literature with structural linguistic analysis is disconcerting. Instead of enhancing the appreciation of the readings, and expanding vocabulary by reading and doing vocabulary practices, most of the exercises are so mundane that they detract from the readings themselves».

The strength of the book is the wealth of reading selections from numerous authors from Spain and Spanish America that include: Baroja, Bécquer, Borges, Cervantes, Galdós, García Márquez, García Lorca, Góngora, J. Goytisolo, Machado, Neruda , Pardo Bazán, Paz, Quevedo, and Valero, among others. Its other major strength is the many different kinds of texts: journalistic, legal, historical, philosophical, literary (poems, prose), essay, advertisements, and even comic strips. Another positive feature of the book are the appendices in which a glossary of linguistic and literary terms is provided.

Based on the framework of the book itself, it is safe to conclude that most of the "linguistic" exercises undermine the book's numerous, varied and worthwhile readings. Instead of developing a better appreciation of reading, along with an increased vocabulary, a student is more likely to develop a dislike for what the author has defined as linguistic analysis. Although this book may suit the framework for which it was designed -the high school curriculum in Spain- it is not recommended for use at the secondary or post-secondary levels in the U. S.

Terry L. Ballman

California State University, Long Beach

There have been relatively few textbooks published for this level, and one of the popular ones went through about fifty printings without ever being purged of its typographical mistakes. Granted, the market is not very large, but, still, corrections should be made. The book being reviewed is the fourth printing, and it is a very clean one.

Each of the fourteen lessons begins with a lectura whose purpose is to set up the grammatical content of the lesson. These lecturas are by Spaniards as well as Latin Americans, and represent the gamut between high literature and journalistic style. There are readings such as «El español de América» (Manuel Seco), «Augusto encuentra a Eugenia» (Unamuno), «Yo fui alcohóloco», «A la deriva» (Horacio Quiroga), and «Santa Eva de las Américas» (Segundo Peña). Interesting readings. Following each lectura are two sets of questions; the first one, comprensión, asks factual questions about the reading, requiring students to formulate answers carefully, using information from several parts of the reading rather than just, for example, copying the first sentence to provide the first answer. The second set of questions, opiniones, requires personal reactions to events of the readings, and this is a very attractive part of the lesson.

The next part, sección gramatical, is designed to do two things; first, it reviews what students should already have learned; second, it gives refinements of grammar appropriate for the advanced level of the students. Here are some examples. After reviewing the use of si in conditional clauses (si ellos lo hubieran sabido antes...), it gives the reasonably common (but avoided in textbooks) equivalent with de (De haberlo sabido ellos antes...). I will wager that most students have never seen that construction before, yet it is appropriate to learn. In the section about reflexive verbs, after it tells about verbs that are always reflexive, and transitive verbs used reflexively (acostarse), it goes on to explain that Spanish transitive verbs require the reflexive form when no other direct object is expressed (quite unlike English): Si la ropa no se seca pronto... «If the clothes don't dry soon...» There is a good section on the passive, followed by another good section on the «resultative» (that is estar + past participle), called «the apparent passive» -not a bad term. This explains clearly the difference between Mario fue herido (a passive) and Mario estaba herido (a resultative) both of which translate «Mario was wounded». This is a particularly difficult concept for English speakers to get used to, owing to the interference from English.

Another nice thing about the grammar sections is that they include lists of expressions revolving around a central item from the section. Thus, there is a list of expressions that use estar another with ser, lots of expressions with the different prepositions (including verbs that are followed by different prepositions, such as renunciar a «to give up», disfrutar de «to enjoy»).

Following the grammatical sections, there is an análisis de la lectura which is a list of questions and exercises based on the lectura to stimulate class discussion on the grammatical or lexical points of the lesson. This ties the grammar to the reading neatly, and vice versa.

The sección léxica which follows recognizes how tricky the problem of vocabulary is, and gives a fresh set of exercises and explanations to help students learn lexical items. There is a very clear

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section on the differences between parecer and parecerse a, for example, and another about the meanings of «to take»: «to take away, to take off (clothing), to take off (, airplanes), to take a step, to take a picture, to take a trip, to take a walk, to take out, to take a nap», and others. This section is followed by a set of suggested traducciones which brings all of the elements of the lesson together. Those instructors who don't like the idea of translations can slip them, but it's nice that they are available. Finally, there are some ingenious composition themes that are based on what different parts of the lesson imply. There are some themes about the initial reading, about the translation section, or about other topics not in the lessons themselves, but that seem to fit.

There is also a separate answer key the publisher will provide to help in correction.

This book is decidedly worth a try in the classroom -a breath of fresh air, different from what instructors doubtless have been using. Its clear explanations make it something easy to utilize.

Thomas A. Lathrop

University of Delaware

España Viva is a complete beginning Spanish program intended to give students an idea of the Spanish language and of the Spaniards who speak it. The program consists of video cassettes, audio cassettes, the book itself, a text-workbook, and a teacher's guide. The content of the material is functional and, by the end of the course, students should be able to handle shopping, ordering meals, asking directions, simple conversations about work, weather, and self, and other everyday situations.

The book has fifteen units that correspond to most of the material presented in the audio and video cassettes. Each unit begins with dialogues with the key words and phrases appearing alongside. There is a quick comprehension check in English following each dialogue. Vocabulary lists are kept short and are from Spanish to English. «How Spanish Works» is a brief explanation of the grammar or idioms from the unit. The grammar explanations are in English with Spanish examples. Students and teachers desiring a «heavy dose» of grammar will not fund it here. Those looking for «just enough grammar to aid comprehension» will be delighted. Each unit contains a short pronunciation section. Structures are checked in a two to three page practice section of functional activities. Each unit ends with a cultural note written in English about areas, towns, customs, or behavior mentioned in the video cassette.

The appendix of the book contains the scripts for additional dialogues that are on the tapes or video, a five-page grammar summary, a pronunciation guide, answers to the comprehension checks and the practice exercises, groups of vocabulary words organized by themes, and a Spanish-English vocabulary of all words that appear in the book.

The text-workbook is essential for those who use the video cassette program. The material in the text-workbook corresponds to the theme of the units in the main book discussed above. Each unit begins with a Spanish-English vocabulario followed by a short pronunciation section that is also on the audio tapes. The cultural units, Reportaje, are again treated here. By using the text-workbook, students are presented with a more complete grammar of the style found in more traditional Spanish texts. The units take students from the study of gender and number through si clauses. The second half of this text-workbook contains the complete videoscript, the Spanish alphabet and a pronunciation guide, a list of proper names, verb charts, definitions of grammatical terms, a Spanish-English dictionary, lists of functional words according to themes, a short bibliography of books on Spain, and an index to the grammar and the functions.

The Teacher's Guide contains the complete text of the audio cassettes and seven short suggested teaching approaches. This resource is the weakest element of the program. Many teachers will expect the elaborate and helpful teacher's manuals available from other publishers and will not find it here. A complete, well-organized manual would be a great asset to this series.

The audio program comes on three, double-sided cassettes packed in a plastic storage case. The tapes contain the dialogues in the book that are marked with an audio cassette icon and some of the audio of the video program. Pronunciation practice and exercises are also included. The tapes are well-done and were made with native speakers in Madrid, Barcelona, and Mojácar, Spain.

The España Viva video series, fifteen 25-minute 1/2'' video tapes, is reason enough to adopt this series. It is a beautifully filmed, contemporary look at Spain and its people. The language level of the teaching scenes or dialogues is coordinated with the exercises found in the book and text-workbook. Culture is presented in the Reportajes found in each unit. These segments were filmed on the coast and mountains of the north of Spain, in and around Madrid, and in Sevilla and Andalucía. Although the level of language is not at all consistent with the level of the dialogues in the unit, the author does not expect students to understand everything. The segments are intended to show the beauty of Spain through a wide range of cultural topics, thirty-one in all.

España Viva has much to offer Spanish students and teachers. There are, nevertheless, a few negatives, including the $1,110 price tag for the video program, essential to the series. The weak teacher's manual could be improved by putting the transcripts

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of all video and audio tapes together and by providing a sample lesson plan which relates all the components of the series. The use of British English could be somewhat difficult to get used to for some U. S. audiences; however, that is not sufficient reason to ignore this program. The audio and visual programs are superb, and in the hands of a teacher who can unite all of this material creatively, students should achieve a good command of Spanish.

Dave McAlpine

Morningside College

Understanding Research in Second Language Learning should be a welcome addition to the library of language teacher and researcher alike. Unlike Hatch and Farhady's Research Design and Statistics for Applied Linguistics (Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House Publishers, 1982), which is designed for the producer of statistical analyses, Brown's work is geared for the consumer. The author specifies five overall goals for the volume: 1) explaining basic terms in statistics, 2) explaining how tables, charts, and graphs work, 3) explaining the use of research designs, 4) explaining the logic underlying the use of various statistics, and 5) explaining how to assess and critique statistical research.

The book is divided into three main areas. The first five chapters introduce much of the terminology necessary to read and understand statistical studies. Some of the topics include a discussion of variables, the organization and types of data, and how to critique a statistical study.

Chapters 6-8 dearly and concisely cover descriptive and testing statistics, including measures of central tendency and dispersion, probability, and validity. Chapter 9 lets the reader explore the issue of statistical logic by showing researchers' logical processes as they develop a study.

The third division of the book reads appreciably more slowly, as the author utilizes case studies to demonstrate the applications of correlation statistics and those that compare means and frequencies. It is at this point that the reader encounters statistical devices such as the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, regression analysis, t tests, chi-square, and others. The case studies always relate to some aspect of language learning, such as the effect of extra language laboratory training on proficiency, or parental attitudes toward foreign language study.

Each chapter concludes with a list of terms and symbols, review questions, and an applications section geared toward language learning.

Although Brown does an excellent job of introducing basic statistical concepts to the beginner, the final chapters covering applications may require more than one reading. The previously mentioned statistical devices are covered in some detail in the case studies. However, many other common statistics are grouped in a section entitled «Related Analyses», which the author recommends for later reference. Some of these related analyses are discussed more thoroughly than others. For example, multiple regression, the F ratio, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are emphasized more than the Kruskal- Wales and the Mann-Whitney U tests or the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient (Spearman rho).

Some readers might appreciate this book more if it contained a reference appendix that grouped the various types of analyses as they are presented in the applications chapters. Such an appendix might elaborate on the statistics not developed in the text and might well include appropriate formulae, some of which are conspicuously, albeit intentionally, missing from the text.

Nevertheless, in this volume, Brown has provided an important tool for the language teacher or would-be researcher who suffers from statistical anxiety. Readers should enjoy the clear, basic explanations, the generally very readable style, and the numerous examples and applications developed specifically for the language teaching professional.

Rosslyn Smith

Texas Tech University

En el año 1981 tuvo lugar en El Paso, Texas, la primera conferencia sobre «Form and Function in Chicano English»; que dio como resultado un libro publicado en 1984, el cual reúne los trabajos allí presentados más algún otro escrito especialmente para la publicación. Ahora reseñamos la segunda edición de esa obra.

El libro está dividido en cinco secciones de desigual extensión: en la primera, «The Linguistic Dimension» (siete artículos), se define y describe lo que se conoce como Chicano English, término de difícil definición. Conocemos por chicano a toda persona que vive en los Estados Unidos pero que ha nacido en México o tiene sus orígenes en este país, por lo que entre ellos hay algunos que hablan solamente inglés, otros únicamente español y el resto utiliza ambas lenguas. Este diverso carácter lingüístico que se da en el grupo étnico que tratamos dificulta la definición del término que se discute en esta sección. Para investigadores como John Baugh «Chicano English» es «any variety of English spoken by a Chicano who can conduct conversations in English exclusively» (5), para otros, como Benji Wald, con una visión más amplia, «Chicano English represents the English spoken by members of the Chicano and/or Mexican-American community» (16). Junto a este intento de definición

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se publican trabajos que estudian algunas de las interferencias que, del español, hay en este dialecto del inglés, concretamente interferencias de fonemas, de elementos suprasegmentales y de grafemas.

En la segunda sección del libro, «The Sociocultural Dimension» (dos trabajos), se presentan algunos de los aspectos sociolingüísticos del bilingüismo chicano, y se pone de manifiesto que, junto a la lengua, hay elementos sociales que caracterizan a este grupo.

En la tercera parte, «Investigating Chicano English» (cuatro ensayos), se exponen algunas de las investigaciones ya hechas en este campo (The Pan American Project y The El Paso Sociolinguistics Microsurvey of Bilingualism), así como diversas líneas de investigación que pueden seguirse en el futuro. No entendemos la inclusión de «Lessons Learned in a Half Century: Experiences of a Practicing Dialectologist» de Raven I. McDavid, Jr. -quizá el mejor dialectólogo norteamericano- pues ni él es especialista ni su artículo tiene nada que ver con el tema central de la obra.

En la cuarta sección, «Chicano English in the Mainstream» (tres capítulos), los investigadores tratan de mostrar la reacción social frente a esta forma de hablar. Además de defender el derecho que tiene el hablante a su propio acento, se muestra la presencia del chicano y su habla en los medios de comunicación (prensa, radio, televisión) y en la literatura.

En la quinta y última parte, «An Annotated Bibliography on Chicano English», se reseñan libros y artículos escritos sobre este tema, algunos de los cuales resultan de difícil localización. Nos parece importante la recopilación hecha, aunque tenemos que señalar que se ha tenido en cuenta fundamentalmente lo publicado en los Estados Unidos, y hubiese sido interesante hacer una cala en publicaciones de otros países, pues a buen seguro el recopilador, Allan Metcalf, habría encontrado material. A modo de ejemplo citaremos: Arnulfo G. Ramírez, «Bilingüismo y actitudes hacia variedades del español entre estudiantes de Texas y California» en LEA, V (1983); 249-68. Estamos ante la falta de comunicación, problema frecuente en el mundo de la investigación relacionado, de una forma u otra, con la cultura hispánica.

Quizá haya quien se pregunte por qué reseñamos un libro sobre inglés en una revista que trata temas relacionados exclusivamente con español y portugués. Recordemos que en la obra se estudia un dialecto del inglés que está en continuo contacto con el español, por lo que lo dicho en ella será de interés para los estudiosos del mundo hispánico que estén preocupados por los problemas de lenguas en contacto; también para los interesados en cuestiones de bilingüismo, de sociolingüística y por último, para no hacer la lista interminable, para muchos profesores de español, que verán aquí una explicación para algunos de sus problemas. Prueba de la utilidad que señalamos es que, como decíamos al principio, el libro ha conseguido llegar a su segunda edición, lo que no es fácil en los textos de lingüística.

En el prólogo a esta segunda edición se habla de «revised versions of the papers» (V), sin embargo, dudamos mucho que se hayan hecho para esta ocasión. Sabemos que la conferencia que origina esta obra se celebró en el año 1981 y que el libro se publicó en 1984, y muchos de los autores utilizan en sus artículos trabajos publicados en 1983, por lo que evidentemente los reelaboraron una vez realzada la conferencia. En la edición que comentamos, no hay ningún dato posterior a 1984, lo que demuestra que dicha revisión no se ha llevado a cabo. Y creemos que una puesta al día de los artículos y, sobre todo, de la bibliografía hubiese sido fundamental para acentuar su utilidad. Los que, sin vivir en los Estados Unidos, estén interesados en el tema, sabrán de las dificultades para conseguir estar oportunamente informados, y esta edición de la obra hubiese sido el momento idóneo para dar a conocer las últimas investigaciones sobre las formas de expresión de los hablantes chicanos.

Pedro Benítez-Pérez

Universidad de Alcalá de Henares

These Actas collect fourteen of the twenty-two presentations made at the Jornadas Hispánicas de la Asociación Alemana de Profesores de Español, held in 1986. Since this body is the West Germán equivalent of our own AATSP, and since its goals are pedagogical in the broadest sense, this anthology is of immediate interest to readers of Hispania. Our colleagues in Germany, however, do not enjoy all the benefits of the vast AATSP organization and American educational market which facilitate the publication and dissemination of research and the production of instructional materials. Their discussions published here represent a vigorous effort to enhance the quality of instruction within their decidedly local community.

The studies in this volume address either content for Spanish classes or methodologies more properly defined. The former are the more successful, although of limited application to classrooms other than the authors' own. José María Navarro («Diálogos de literatura española actual en la enseñanza del español» and «Panorámica de la narrativa española post-franquista»), Dietrich Briesemeister («Panorámica de la recepción de la literatura española en la Alemania de la postguerra») and four other articles represent close readings of Hispanic texts or analyses of their recent socio-literary history.

The remaining seven essays, while professedly

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pedagogical in nature, limit themselves to personal arrangements of course material without a firm theoretical base. Burkhard Voigt («Unidades acumulables en la fase de la transición: del libro de texto al trabajo sin manual») discusses how and when teachers should employ their own course packs after finishing the standard language text and before moving onto independent literary works. Marianne Häuptle-Barceló («Nuevas perspectivas para el aprendizaje de idiomas extranjeros») gives an able, brief survey of the theoretical premises of Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell and then a description of a system for mailing cassette tapes back and forth between Germán and Spanish language students, each commenting in their own tongue initially on their perceptions of national identity and stereotypes, and then on whatever they liked as they got to know their «conversation partner». The material is certainly authentic (Häuptle-Barceló's goal), but in itself it does not constitute a methodology, is not formally structured at either end of the exchange and is apparently not coordinated with the rest of the instructional program. Other classroom techniques suggested by Till Schreiber («Otra oportunidad didáctica: El acceso a textos literarios mediante la imaginación sensorial») and Elisabeth Tayefeh («La película en la clase de comprensión auditiva y expresión oral») suffer from being excessively teacher-centered and urging rather lofty and diffuse instructional ploys: «[el profesor puede preguntar:] ¿En qué piensan ustedes cuando oyen el título?» (58).

One study does indeed have a rather elaborate methodology for setting up a conversation class: Graciela Vázquez's «La clase de expresión oral: introducción a la catástrofe». The author, lamenting the lack of research that would guide the establishment of an objectively reliable sequence of speaking skills -a good deal of research on language functions and their natural sequencing is in fact available: cf. below- creates, with definition, her own. Vázquez's eleven-point «Tipología mínima de ejercicios» runs the gamut from «¿Qué me habrá querido decir?» (on negotiating registers of language), through «En boca cerrada no entran moscas» (extracting information from an unwilling partner) to «A ver si se ponen de acuerdo» (on managing disagreements). The principal difficulties with this arrangement are relatively high-level skills again required by students from the outset, and the recommended insistence on the part of the teacher that student failure to communicate engagingly will result in outright rejection by the native speaker: the catástrofe of the title.

The volume on the whole suggests somewhat limited horizons. While there are a number of Germán language methodological studies virtually unknown among our own circles in the footnotes to these articles, not a single journal from outside of Europe is cited: nothing from MLJ, FLA or from Hispania. But with the level of commitment shown in this collection to advancing their professional acumen, we should look for good things from our Germán colleagues in the near future.

George D. Greenia

College of William and Mary

Many clarinistas will find much to fault in this editing, introduction, translation and notes to Leopoldo Alas's Cuentos morales (1896). Nonetheless, the translations themselves should be serviceable to those readers and teachers of English-language classes who interest themselves in the short fiction of late nineteenth-century Europe.

The problems with the present volume begin with the table of contents (vii), its introduction (ix-xvi) and bibliography (xvi-xviii). With no explanation the following stories from Cuentos morales are dropped from The Moral Tales: «Don Urbano», «Ordalías», «Flirtación legítima», «La tara», and «González Bribón». Moreover, the table of contents lists both the «Translator's Introduction» and another «Introduction» beginning on page one. But there is no «Introduction» on that or any other page(s). Now since the translator/editor refers in his introduction to Alas's «Prólogo» as «The author's "Introduction"» (ix, x, xi), should we assume that the «Prólogo» was listed in the table of contents as «Introduction», but inadvertently omitted from The Moral Tales? I can only answer that the extremely brief, but important «Prólogo» is missing and that is a shame. For it is the only time that Leopoldo Alas «Clarín» wrote a prologue to one of his volumes of shorter or longer fiction, and it is a significant literary and personal statement.

Going on to the «Translator's Introduction» per se, more problems arise. Stackhouse states that in «The author's "Introduction"» Clarin's criterion for selection of stories in the collection was «to portray a concept of morality as the proof of free will» (ix). But this is a misreading, in my opinion, of Clarín's explicit intention in his «Prólogo» to investigate «los fenómenos de la conducta libre... la psicología de las acciones intencionadas». While Clarín does in fact explore a wide range of actions and motivations in his human and animal characters, Stackhouse limits, I think, Cuentos morales

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by attributing to them an anti-deterministic stance (ix, x, xi-xii) less characteristic of Clarín than of Pardo Bazán in the early 1880s. On a more general level, the inadequacies of the «Translator's Introduction» can be found in his general remarks on the novels and authors of the Generation of 1868. Stackhouse contrasts Alas's treatment of all sectors of Asturian society with the supposedly more limited canvases of his colleagues: «an urban society, a decadent rural aristocracy... with rough laboring classes» in the respective work of Galdós, Pardo Bazán and Blasco Ibáñez (xv). Clearly Stackhouse is revealing a very narrow range of reading for these writers. Finally, it is hard to say for whom he has assembled the bibliography. No information is given on the following subjects: English translations of other works by Alas; Spanish editions of Cuentos morales; edited volumes, for either Spanish or English-language audiences, of short stories by Alas. And the omission of the name of Carolyn Richmond will surprise many clarinistas.

The translation itself is, as was said above, serviceable. All the same the very frequent omission of Clarín's characteristic use of ellipses and italics can be questioned, as well as the decision to collapse many short paragraphs into longer ones. These practices alter reader perception of Alas's style. Furthermore, in certain stories unfortunate translating decisions have been made. In the case of «Breaker» («La conversión de Chiripa»), for instance, «mozo de cordel» is consistently rendered as «delivery boy» or «messenger boy». But Breaker, at his forty years of age, is more the pathetic human gorilla than the undisciplined, idle boy. In «Keen» («El Quin») the use of «French poodle» for «perro de lanas» implies effeminacy and triviality in the male canine protagonist; but that characterizes him falsely.

Lastly, a few words about the textual notes (187-99) are in order. While, for example, the annotations to the Roman background of «Lucius Varius» are well done, in other places there are lapses: in «Queen Margaret» we read that the protagonist was so isolated that she «was not certain about who Martínez Campos was» (183); when this reference is not annotated, many readers will not understand just how apart from the world the heroine is. And given the autobiographical dimension of the «Translator's Introduction» and the «Prólogo» notes on corresponding personal elements in the stories might have been in order.

Stephen Miller

Texas A&M University

Six of the historical fictions that comprise Los usurpadores were written in the 1940s while Ayala was living in Argentina. «El Hechizado», first published in 1944, was immediately acclaimed by Argentine critics, and the collection ranks among the author's best-known works. The present translation is of the expanded text of 1969, which added a seventh story.

In her introduction, Richmond indicates that she has attempted to provide as faithful a recreation of Ayala's text as possible. To this end, she intends to respect sentence length. To compensate for the American reader's probable lack of familiarity with Spanish history, she decided to use informational footnotes. While one might expect a methodology so defined to result in a ploddingly literal translation with painfully Hispanized syntax, quite the opposite is true. Richmond's English-language text is a pleasure to read. It flows so gracefully that the translation becomes invisible. Where Richmond retains the longer sentences characteristic of literary Spanish (and indeed she does divide some, typically replacing semicolons with periods), the stylistic effect is appropriate to historical fiction. Ayala's ironic style shines through, and the infrequent, brief footnotes, while perhaps not all equally necessary, are never distractive.

The quality of Richmond's translation becomes readily apparent if we juxtapose her «The Bewitched» with an earlier version that appears in Modern Library's 1956 collection, Great Spanish Stories. The 1956 translation incorrectly maintains false cognates, which Richmond renders accurately; her thorough understanding of the original text, coupled with her own sensitivity to style, yields a more natural English. For example, Ayala's «Ahí consumió, pues, el resto de su vida. Pasaba el tiempo entre las labranzas y sus devociones, y, por las noches, escribía» (Obras narrativas completas 531) appears in the 1956 version as follows: «Here he lived out the rest of his life, dividing his time between his labors and his devotions, and, during the evenings, he was wont to write» (419). Richmond's superior solution is: «It was there, then, that he spent the rest of his life. He divided his time between farming and prayer, and in the evenings he wrote». She has related «labranza» to its correct meaning in context, wisely rendered «devociones» as «prayer», and avoided the somewhat archaic «wont» and the rambling sentence structure, neither of which are present in the Spanish original.

Richmond's desire to re-create faithfully the original text leads her to pay attention to stylistic details. In «El doliente» Ayala has carefully constructed a repetition of the word «faltar»: «-No, no ha de faltarles cuidado a los halcones del rey de Castilla mientras Ruy Pérez tenga vida. Falta, sí, que el rey mismo no nos falte a nosotros...» (485). Richmond has achieved an equivalent effect through her use of «want»: «No, the falcons of the king of Castile will not want for care so long as Ruy Pérez is alive. What is wanted, indeed, is that the king not fail us in our want» (34).

The lyric epilogue, Ayala's 1939 Spanish elegy

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«Diálogo de los muertos», poses a different challenge which Richmond also handles with ease, capturing the poetic tone of the original. The opening paragraph describes how the wind «arrancaba alaridos sordos, y todavía lágrimas, de los árboles sin hojas, negros, mutilados, crispados, desesperados, amenazantes» (585). Richmond successfully renders this as the wind «wrestled muffled screams, and even tears, from the black, mutilated, twisted, desperate, menacing, leafless trees» (159).

Francisco Ayala is one of Spain's greatest writers of the twentieth century. Over the years, some of his stories and novels have been translated to English, but he has not yet achieved the recognition that he richly deserves. Carolyn Richmond's careful, sensitive, and elegant translation of the Usurpers should contribute measurably to his reputation in the United States.

Phyllis Zatlin

Rutgers, The State University

Después de haber traducido a Padrón en dos volúmenes, The Circles of Hell (1981) y Quartz (1987), Louis Boume recoge en esta antología un sustancial número de poemas, pertenecientes a todos los libros de Padrón, desde Los oscuros fuegos (1971) hasta una muestra del inédito Sólo muere la mano que te escribe (1988). En suma, ocho libros representados.

Justo Jorge Padrón, nacido en 1943, podría incluirse en la llamada generación o promoción «del lenguaje», surgida en la segunda mitad de la década de los 60 (Gimferrer, Azúa, Vázquez Montalbán), que daría lugar a la proliferación culturalista de los años 70. De hecho, el cuidado del lenguaje y el adentramiento en otras culturas y literaturas, no resultan privativos de estos poetas, ya que se comprueba análoga inquietud en la promoción de los arios 50/60, si bien en muy distinta circunstancia, la de una posguerra y sus elementales urgencias extrapoéticas. Nombres como los de Ángel Crespo, Julia Uceda, Francisco Brines, Carlos Sahagún o Mariano Roldán, atestiguan la vigilancia del lenguaje tanto como la inmersión en zonas no puramente realistas.

La poesía de Justo Jorge Padrón tiene, desde esa perspectiva, relación con tales poetas, y con una segura huella existencial, proveniente de más lejos, de los poetas de los años 40. En Padrón, los temas de la angustia y la desesperación, lo mismo que el constante recuerdo de la infancia, ofrecen ejemplos de una herencia asumida y también de la no servidumbre a moldes fijos promocionales. Entre existencial y alucinatoria, esta poesía no desautoriza el alrededor y su seducción sensorial, presentando una coherencia de lo concreto dentro de la proyección simbolista. Es poesía de la experiencia, como ya lo destacara Leopoldo de Luis en el estudio preliminar que figura en el tomo de Padrón La visita del mar / Los dones de la tierra (1984), y ello revela otra aproximación a los poetas de las décadas 50/60. Experiencia expresada -según el citado crítico y poeta- en «visión», manejándose con abundancia el esencial instrumento visionario que es la metáfora. De todas formas, no hay que buscar en esta poesía complicaciones ni hermetismos. Tampoco originalidad de materiales lingüísticos empleados, pues lo original consiste en la manera de distribución y el resultante verbal.

La antigua familiaridad de Louis Bourne con la poesía de Padrón ha producido una versión impecable. Ha huido del peligro, evidente en tantos traductores, de rectificar y mejorar el texto surtiéndolo de su propia cosecha, peligro que podría agudizarse si el traductor es poeta como en el caso de Boume, y buen poeta. Bourne ya ha probado su habilidad de traductor con otros poetas españoles, especialmente con Vicente Aleixandre, de quien antología The Crackling Sun (1981) tradujola, sin disputa, la óptima traducción al inglés de los versos del Premio Nobel. Quizá en la traducción de Padrón encuentre alguien tal o cual correlato léxico ciertamente discutible, como ocurre con el verso primero del poema «Cruzo las noches», del libro Mar de la noche: «Busco tus ojos de agua», que Bourne traduce así: «I look for your liquid eyes» (20). En un poema donde el agua es importante y se reitera específicamente, ese adjetivo, liquid, debilita la exactitud con su ampliación semántica.

Sin embargo, el ejemplo constituye una excepción en la sostenida fidelidad léxica de la versión de Bourne. Digna de elogio es igualmente la fidelidad conseguida en el ritmo sintáctico, que fluye con la naturalidad del original. También, el verdadero traductor que es Bourne se preocupa de conservar en lo posible los efectos fónicas y fonéticos del texto español, sobre todo los aliterativos. Citaré dos casos de feliz equivalencia. Uno, el foral del poema «La cobra», del libro La visita del mar: «...la sangre de la esfinge que crece en tu mirada, / por la que lenta repta su sentencia». Este verso repite la rima interior -ea en lenta, repta y sentencia. Bourne resuelve la dificultad traduciendo así: «...Sphinx blood growing in your gaze / Through which her slow sentence slithers» (127). La aliteración del texto español (pues toda rima es aliteración), ha sido transformada en aliteración y onomatopeya de gran expresividad en las sibilantes: slow, sentence, slithers. Otro ejemplo del mismo libro: en el poema «El tigre avanza», el verso «Desde cualquier distancia se oye el rugir de un rey», está traducido así: «From any distante the roaring of a ruler can be heard» (110). Se mantiene la calidad aliterativa y onomatopéyica de las vibrantes de «el rugir de un rey» en el texto inglés: «The roaring of a ruler». (Ruler y no king, que hubiese eliminado la paridad aliterativa).

Bourne ha escrito para el volumen una útil introducción sobre la poesía del autor, y ha seleccionado

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con acierto los poemas, que son ciento treinta y tres. La cantidad explica por sí sola el motivo de que no se hayan insertado los correspondientes textos originales, aunque se echan en falta. Pero el lector no debe perder de vista lo fundamental, y es que Bourne sabe transmitirle la comunicación directa, el latido del poeta español. El conocido juicio de Robert Frost proclamando que la poesía es aquello que desaparece en la faena traductora, no se aplica a esta versión realizada por uno de los mejores traductores contemporáneos.

Manuel Mantero

University of Georgia

The novel translated by Zatz concerts the encounter of two worlds and two cultures centuries apart. The lesser-known opera of Antonio Vivaldi, Motezuma (1733), which is based upon Giusti's historically deformed and anacronistic libretto on Montezuma and the Spanish conquest of Mexico, is the vehicle which Carpentier utilizes as the link for the temporal and spatial syncretic encounter between the Old and the New. The baroque concert is the main subject of the discourse. But instead of being a harmonious concert in unison, it is disharmony which marks the concerto grosso, where the Cuban-African sounds of Kábala-sum-sum-sum (also distorted from he original Ca-la-ba-són, Son-Són) are joined together with those of the oboe, tromba, clarino, regale, cornetto, viola, flautino, chitarrone, violini piccoli alla francese and trombone to produce a «fantastic symphony» (84).

This first edition in English includes an «Author's Note» from Carpentier; as it appeared in the 1976 French edition (Concert baroque, Gallimard). It also contains a «Foreword» by David Draper Clark, which consists of a brief sum of Carpentier's biography and major literary works. Clark stresses the prominence of the Cuban writer within the Latin American narrative by stating that «Carpentier is the best-known Cuban novelist abroad and was arguably, with the exception of Jorge Luis Borges, the most influential Latin American writer of prose fiction of his generation» (21). His commentaries would be useful to the uninitiated reader as an introduction to Carpentier. A final section, the «Translator's Notes», clarifies some historical facts related to the plot.

Asa Zatz has had a long career as a translator. He served as Oscar Lewis's principal translator of the research materials used in The Children of Sánchez and in Pedro Martínez. He also translated The Dead Girls and Two Crimes, by Jorge Ibargüengoitia; Clandestine in Chile, by Gabriel García Márquez; The Perón Novel, by Tomás Eloy Martínez; and Ballad of Another Time, by José Luis González. Now, he offers us an excellent translation of Concierto barroco, notwithstanding the following observations.

A comparison of the Spanish and the English texts immediately exposes to view a fairly radical difference in the physical aspect of the written discourse. That is, while Carpentier preferred very long paragraphs (for example, two in Chapter I, three in Chapter II, and one in Chapter III), Zatz chose to fragment the narrative into shorter paragraphs (in the same chapters mentioned above, eight, fourteen and eight, respectively). This pattern of having many more paragraphs in the translation is obvious, as well, in each of the remaining chapters of the novel. An unavoidable consequence of this fragmentation would be longer pauses in the reading and, thus, a somewhat altered rhythm than the mostly «punto y seguido» style of the Spanish original. One could assume that the translator did this in order to achieve unity and balance of particular points. However, Carpentier may have wanted to achieve a totally contrary effect, more characteristic of the language of music and the graphic shape of a staff.

There is a tendency in the translation toward condensation, which at times does not convey exactly the same meaning. «¡Diablo de negro!» is translated as «Black Devil!» (84), and «el Fraile Pelirrojo» as «the Red Priest» (70). In an effort to keep the same tone of the narration, Zatz tries to use equivalent proverbs and idiomatic expressions. Still, the same meaning is not always clearly rendered. «Con una mano delante y otra detrás», signifying without money or possessions, is translated as «their bottoms showing through their breeches» (48). This, because it is not a much-used expression as is the Spanish proverb, may present difficulties in understanding.

Any translation of a text depends, primarily, upon the interpretation given to it. It is interesting to note, for example, when the criollo refers to the trumpet as «instrumento de malas pulgas y palabras mayores», Zatz's version is «a quick-tempered instrument that uses strong language» (127). Roberto Gónzalez Echaverría, on the other hand, citing these fines in his book, Alejo Carpentier: The Pilgrim at Home, translates it as «the instrument of ill humor and great events» (269). The translations assigned to «palabras mayores» («strong language» and «great events») denote two different concepts. It is proof, once more, of the difficult task of translating.

The many redeeming features of the translation far outweigh the few less desirable ones. For the most part, the translator maintains in his work strict adherence to the original text, without being literal. With respect to the poems and songs in the novel, Zatz's handling of the rhyme is generally effective. He has accomplished a very enjoyable translation of this superb novella, and should be commended for making it accessible to the English-speaking reader.

Daniel Zalacaín

Seton Hall University

Over the last few decades the production and dissemination of Hispanic literature in the U. S. has evolved considerably. At one time in the not too distant past, works by Spanish American authors were inaccessible to English-language readers; if the books could be acquired at all, they were generally available only in the original Spanish-language editions. Then, along with the «Boom», came a plethora of translations -English versions of works by Borges, Neruda, Asturias, et al.. Practically overnight, readers in the U. S. had discovered the literary riches of a «New World». Nowadays, translations appear almost simultaneously with the original editions and, in some cases, even prior to the Spanish-language versions. Also, Hispanic writers , particularly those living in the U. S., are beginning to produce works in English. Such is the case of Elías Miguel Muñoz's first English-language novel, Crazy Love.

This work, the title of which comes from a song by Paul Anka, pays homage to Manuel Puig by depicting the enormous influence popular or mass culture has exerted on contemporary life and fiction, a phenomenon evident here in ubiquitous references to North American pop songs, movies, music videos, etc. Muñoz's novel, divided into three parts (the literary equivalent of stanzas) called «Steps», records the effects of acculturation on a family of Cuban immigrants. His treatment of this subject matte reexamines the clash between personal aspirations and familial obligations and the attempt to reconcile Hispanic traditions, such as the concept of the extended family, with the alien cultural patterns of North American life, where young adults are encouraged to live on their own and families consign their elderly to nursing homes.

Muñoz experiments with narrative techniques within the framework of traditional categories, specifically the epistolary novel and the Bildungsroman. He employs frequent shifts in time and place, breaks in linear temporal sequence, and narration by means of a questionnaire (where the reader sees the answers but not the questions), to produce a text which is purportedly the autobiography of a Cuban-American musician, Julian Toledo. Julian's book, which he began writing as a form of therapy, includes letters from his sister (a counterpoint to his own recalled experiences), and transcriptions of interviews, conversations, and family tape recordings. He recounts the loss of childhood innocence (learning that presents do not come from the Reyes Magos), his exposure to violence, and his sexual awakening, the latter brought on by numerous encounters of a perverse nature.

During the course of his cathartic narrative, which he records in English, Julian is forced to come to terms with his ethnicity. His name, Julian (the Anglicized form without the written accent), encapsulates this central issue of selfhood. Although he has achieved success as a musician, he has become established by prostituting himself -abandoning his cultural roots to do North American popular music. In order to purge his guilt and forge his own self-image he must resolve the dichotomy of his status as a Cuban native living in the U. S. and synthesize the duality of his Cuban-American identity.

Ballad of Another Time also treats the subject of personal growth and development, in this case with emphasis on inter-personal relationships. In this novel, originally published in Spanish in 1976 by Ediciones Huracán (Puerto Rico) and Editorial Nueva Imagen (Mexico), Puerto Rican author José Luis González (b. 1926) utilizes flashbacks, interior monologues, and straightforward narration to tell a simple story of marital infidelity, jealousy, and revenge. González incorporates much that is typical of Puerto Rican life, from the opening epigraphs quoting Luis Llorens Torres and Luis Palés Matos, to discussions of politics, to scenes illustrating cultural and racial conflicts, such as the differences between the people from the mountains, the coffee-producing region, and the inhabitants of the lowlands, where sugar cane is grown. He frequently informs the reader of his characters' thoughts. These figures think and act more according to stereotypical patterns of behavior than as individuals. Rosendo, who makes no attempt to conceal his racist and sexist attitudes, is indeed a throwback to «another time».

Told in the present tense, the novel concerns Rosendo Arbonás search for his wife, Dominga, who has run away with Fico Santos, a youth on the verge of manhood. Rosendo's journey takes him far from his home and brings him in contact with varieties of island culture different from his own. While on his quest, he encounters a black woman who practices what he calls witchcraft. Disregarding her warning he continues his pursuit. Fico, who has served time in prison for causing a disturbance in a brothel, is, nevertheless, inexperienced sexually, a condition which causes him great anxiety. Dominga confesses to Fico that once she was in love with Rosendo, but somehow she allowed her love for him to die. The novel builds to a suspenseful climax in which Rosendo, having found his wife and her companion in a farmhouse, eavesdrops on their conversation. While listening to their stories, he becomes aware of their feelings and, at the same time, undergoes a self-discovery.

The fact that Asa Zatz, (an experienced translator whose credits include English versions of works by García Márquez and Ibargüengoitia) has translated a novel by a lesser-known writer indicates a trend toward increased diffusion of Spanish American writing in the U. S. and is a testimony to the literature's vitality. Crazy Love and Ballad of

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Another Time represent a expanding body of prose fiction which, whether originally in English or translated from Spanish, has begun to cross previously impenetrable barriers to reach new audiences. The coming of age of Julian and Fico Santos in these two novels serves as a synecdoche for the maturation of this literature and its growing acceptance among Anglo-American readers.

Melvin S. Arrington, Jr.

University of Mississippi

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CUNQUEIRO, ÁLVARO. Las mocedades de Ulises. Barcelona: Destino, 1989 (2 ed.). 307 pp.

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GÁNDARA, ALEJANDRO. La media distancia. Barcelona: Destino, 1989. 276 pp.

GARCÍA LORCA, FEDERICO. Primer Romancero Gitano. Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías. Edición de Miguel García-Posada. Madrid: Castalia, 1988. 292 pp.

GOSMAN, MARTIN and HUB. HERMANS, editors. España, Teatro y Mujeres (Estudios dedicados a Henk Oostendorp). Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1989. 257 pp.

HALL, MAHJI. «T» is for «Terrific». Mahji's ABC's. Seattle: Open Hand Publishing, Inc., 1989. Unpaginated.

HASTINGS, EUGENE B. Anotaciones sobre «La malograda», San Pedro Mártir y la interpretación de la Rima LXXVI de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. Valencia: Albatros/Hispanófila, Ediciones, 1987. 35 pp.

Journal of the Society of Basque Studies in America, IX (1989). 104 pp.

La Nuez (Revista de Arte y Literatura) Año 1, 2 (1988). New York. 20 pp.

MILLÁS, JUAN JOSÉ. Visión del ahogado. Barcelona: Destino, 1989. 238 pp.

MURPHY, RAYMOND, with ROANN ALTMAN. Grammar in Use. Answer Key. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. 46 pp.

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SADOW, STEPHEN A. ¡Fantástico! Activities for Creative Communication. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers, Inc., 1989. 158 pp.

STEEN, MARÍAS. El humor en la obra de Fernando Arrabal. Madrid: Editorial Playor, 1988. 126 pp.

Tramoya (Cuaderno de teatro), Nueva época, 12-13 (Oct.-Dic. 1987); 14-15 (Abril-Sept. 1988); 1617 (Oct.-Dic. 1988). Universidad Veracruzana and Rutgers University/Camden. 151 pp., 96 pp., 112 pp.

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WOODRUFF-WIEDING, MARGARET S. and LAURA J. AYALA. Favorite Games for FL-ESL Classes. For All Levels and All Languages. Los Gatos, California: Sky Oaks Productions, Inc., 1989. 77 pp.

Hispania [Publicaciones periódicas]. Volume 72, Number 4, December 1989