| Description |
1 online resource (xi, 307 pages) : illustrations |
| Series |
Cambridge studies in Latin American and Iberian literature ; 7 |
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Cambridge studies in Latin American and Iberian literature ; 7.
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| Contents |
1. The tales that now no one believes: Leyendas de Guatemala. The first steps. Mythmaker. Proteus in the streets of Paris. Making "fabula rasa" of surrealism. The birth of neo-Indigenismo. Tropical anamorphosis. Resolution as solution. The sifting of ancient times -- 2. Becoming ants after the harvest: Hombres de maiz. Sinbad sails home. A unifying principle. Burning water. Opossum's dawn. Uneven Eve. Coyote's covenant. Tall tales made to order. A new American idiom. The role of animals. Numbers. Colors -- 3. If all the dead began to walk, the earth would be full of steps: Mulata de tal. The short-lived republic of "bread, land, and freedom" After the fall. The devil bearing gifts. The transgressive power of eroticism. Money doesn't smell. The world upside down. In praise of folly -- Conclusion: From death unto life |
| Summary |
Miguel Angel Asturias (1899-1974) is one of the notable literary figures in Latin America who in the 1920s contrived both to explore and define Latin literature within the mainstream of Western history. He managed to be poetic, political and mythological at the same time, and with a degree of synthesis rarely achieved then or since. As is the case with many Latin American writers, his work is inextricably linked with politics, and he lived in exile for many years. He was influenced by Indian mythology, fantasy and Surrealism and was the first Latin American novelist to understand the implications of anthropology and structural linguistics for culture and for fiction. In 1967, Asturias became the first Latin American novelist to win the Nobel Prize. René Prieto examines how Miguel Angel Asturias turns to the cultural traditions of the ancient Maya and combines them with the rhetoric of surrealism in order to produce three highly complex and widely misunderstood masterpieces; the Leyendas de Guatemala (1930), Hombres de maíz (1949) and Mulata de tal (1963). Asturias is the first American author to succeed in portraying an indigenous world vision that is blatantly non-Western. Borrowing a variety of techniques from preColumbian manuscripts, he creates a new type of literature that is still the best example of the cultural blend typifying the Americas. This is the first book to examine these three novels for their originality beyond the usual political readings normally attributed to them.--Publisher description |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-294) and index |
| Notes |
English |
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Print version record |
| In |
ACLS Humanities E-Book. |
| Subject |
Asturias, Miguel Angel -- Criticism and interpretation
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| SUBJECT |
Asturias, Miguel Angel fast |
| Subject |
Magic realism (Literature)
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Mayas in literature.
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Magic realism (Literature)
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Mayas in literature
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Realisme màgic (Literatura)
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Maies en la literatura.
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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Llibres electrònics.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
92024500 |
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