A Luis Leal reader / edited and with an introduction by Ilan Stavans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leal, Luis, 1907-2010.

Contributor:

Stavans, Ilan.

Series:

Latino voices

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mexican literature--History and criticism.

Mexican literature.

American literature--Mexican American authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--Mexican American authors.

Physical Description:

xv, 461 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Since his first publication in 1942, Luis Leal has likely done more than any other writer or scholar to foster a critical appreciation of Mexican, Chicano, and Latin American literature and culture. This volume, bringing together a representative selection of Leal's writings from the past sixty years, is at once a wide-ranging introduction to the most influential scholar of Latino literature and a critical history of the field as it emerged and developed through the twentieth century. Instrumental in establishing Mexican literary studies in the United States, Leal's writings on the topic are especially instructive, ranging from essays on the significance of symbolism, culture, and history in early Chicano literature to studies of the more recent use of magical realism and of individual New Mexican, Tejano, and Mexican authors such as Juan Rulfo, Carlos Fuentes, José Montoya, and Mariano Azuela. Clearly and cogently written, these writings bring to bear an encyclopedic knowledge, a deep understanding of history and politics, and an unparalleled command of the aesthetics of storytelling, from folklore to theory. This collection affords readers the opportunity to consider--or reconsider--Latino literature under the deft guidance of its greatest reader.

Contents:

Introduction: The day I was Luis Leal

In search of Aztlán

A historical perspective

The problem of identifying Chicano literature

Into the labyrinth

Truth-telling tongues

Lo real maravilloso in Nuevo México

The Spanish-language press

El paso y la huella

Bernardo de Balbuena

Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá

La Conquistadora

Félix Varela

Miguel Antonio Otero

Mariano Azuela

María Cristina Mena

José Rubén Romero

Pedro Henríquez Ureña

Octavio Paz

Juan Rulfo

Carlos Fuentes

José A. Montoya

Tomás Rivera

Américo Paredes

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith

Rudolfo Anaya

Sandra Cisneros

La Malinche

Other female archetypes

Mexico's centrifugal culture

Aspects of the Mexican novel

Magic realism

African influences

Tlatelolco, Tlatelolco

The ugly American

Octavio Paz and the chicano

Mirror, mirror

Beyond myths and borders.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780810124189

0810124181

OCLC:

122291628