The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature

The Cambridge History of

Latin American Literature

VOLUME 3

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

T h e Cambridge History of Latin American Literature

Edited by

Roberto González Echevarría and Enrique Pupo-Walker

The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature is by far the most comprehen￾sive and authoritative work of its kind ever written. Its three volumes cover the whole

sweep of Latin American literature (including Brazilian) from pre-Columbian times to

the present, and contain chapters on Latin American writing in the US. Over forty

specialists in North America, Latin America, and Britain have contributed to what is

not only the most reliable, up-to-date, and convenient reference work on its subject,

but also a set of books containing innovative approaches and fresh research that will

expand and animate the field for years to come. The History is unique in its thorough

coverage of previously neglected areas, in its detailed discussion of countless writers in

various genres, and in its inclusion of extensive annotated bibliographies.

Volume i begins with pre-Columbian traditions and their first contact with European

culture, continuing through to the end of the nineteenth century. New World

historiography, epic poetry, theatre, the novel, and the essay form are among the areas

covered in this comprehensive and authoritative treatment.

Volume 2 provides coverage of all genres from the end of the nineteenth century up to

Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and beyond to 1990, thus including

discussion of Spanish American literature's best-known works. The novel, poetry,

autobiographical narrative, the short story, Afro-Hispanic American literature,

theatre, and Chicano literature are among the areas treated in this wide-ranging

volume.

Volume 3 is devoted partly to the history of Brazilian literature, from the earliest

writing through the colonial period and the Portuguese-language traditions of the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and partly also to an extensive bibliographical

section in which annotated reading lists relating to the chapters in all three volumes of

The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature are presented. These biblio￾graphies are a unique feature of the History, further enhancing its immense value as a

reference work.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

Contents of the other two volumes

Volume i: Discovery to Modernism

List of contributors; General preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction to Volume i; i.

A brief history of the history of Spanish American literature; 2. Cultures in contact:

Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the European written tradition; 3. The first fifty years of

Hispanic New World historiography: the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America;

4. Historians of the Conquest and Colonization of the New World: 1550-1620; 5.

Historians of the colonial period: 1620-1700; 6. Colonial lyric; 7. Epic poetry; 8.

Spanish American theatre of the colonial period; 9. Viceregal culture; 10. The

eighteenth century: narrative forms, scholarship, and learning; 11. Lyric poetry of the

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; 12. Spanish American theatre of the eighteenth

century; 13. The nineteenth-century Spanish American novel; 14. The brief narrative

in Spanish America: 1835—1915; 15. The Spanish American theatre of the nineteenth

century; 16. The essay in Spanish South America: 1800 to Modernismo; 17. The essay

of nineteenth-century Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean; 18. The gaucho

genre; Index.

Volume 2: The Twentieth Century

List of contributors; General preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction to Volume 2;

1. Modernist poetry; 2. Modernist prose; 3. The Vanguardia and its implications; 4.

The literature of Indigenismo; 5. Afro-Hispanic American literature; 6. The criollista

novel; 7. The novel of the Mexican Revolution; 8. The Spanish American novel from

1950 to 1975; 9. The Spanish American novel: recent developments, 1975 to 1990; 10.

Spanish American poetry from 1922 to 1975; 11. The modern essay in Spanish

America; 12. Literary criticism in Spanish America; 13. The autobiographical

narrative; 14. The twentieth-century short story in Spanish America; 15. Spanish

American theatre in the twentieth century; 16. Latin American (Hispanic Caribbean)

literature written in the United States; 17. Chicano literature; Index.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature

VOLUME 3

Brazilian literature; bibliographies

Edited by

Roberto Gonzále z Echevarría

Yale University

and

Enrique Pupo-Walke r

Vanderbilt University

CAMBRIDGE

UNIVERSITY PRESS

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© Cambridge University Press 1996

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

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no reproduction of any part may take place without

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First published 1996

Reprinted 2006

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

The Cambridge history of Latin American literature /edited by Roberto

Gonzalez Echevarria and Enriue Pupo-Walker.

p. cm.

Contents: v. 1. Discovery to Modernism - v. 2. The twentieth

century - v. 3. Brazilian literature; bibliographies.

ISB N o 521 34069 1 (v. 1). -ISB N o 521 34070 5 (v. 2.).

ISBN 0 521 4103 5 5 (V. 3).

i . Latin American literature-History and critcism.

i . Gonza lez Echevarria, Roberto. II. Pupo-Walker, Enrique.

PQ708.A1C3 5 1995

860.9'8 -dc2 0 93-3775 0 CI P

ISB N o 521 4103 5 5 hardback

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

Contents

List of contributors

General preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction to Volume 3

page x

X I X

X I

I

1 The literary historiography of Brazil

Benedito Nunes 11

2 Colonial Brazilian literature

David T. Haberly 47

3 Brazilian poetry from the 1830s to the 1880s

Labio Lucas 69

4 Brazilian poetry from 1878 to 1902

Massaud Moisés 83

5 The Brazilian theatre up to 1900

Severino Joao Albuquerque 105

6 Brazilian fiction from 1800 to 1855

Mary L. Daniel 127

7 The Brazilian novel from 1850 to 1900

David T. Haberly 137

8 Brazilian fiction from 1900 to 1945

Mary L. Daniel 157

9 Brazilian prose from 1940 to 1980

John Gledson 189

10 The Brazilian short story

K. David Jackson 207

11 Brazilian poetry from 1900 to 1922

Marta Peixoto 233

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LIST OF CONTENT S

12 Brazilian poetry from Modernism to the 1990s

Giovanni Pontiero 247

13 The Brazilian theatre in the twentieth century

Severino Joao Albuquerque 269

14 Brazilian popular literature (the literatura de cordel)

Candace Slater 315

15 Literary criticism in Brazil

K. David Jackson 329

16 The essay: architects of Brazilian national identity

Thomas E. Skidmore 345

17 The Brazilian and the Spanish American literary traditions: a contrastive

view

/. G. Merquior 363

Bibliographies

1 Bibliography of general bibliographies of Spanish American literature

Professor Hensley C. Woodbridge, Southern Illinois University￾Carbondale 383

2 Individual bibliographies 426

Volume 1

1 A brief history of the history of Spanish American literature 426

2 Cultures in contact: Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the European

written tradition 437

3 The first fifty years of Hispanic New World historiography: the

Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America 452

4 Historians of the conquest and colonization of the New World:

1550-1620 458

5 Historians of the colonial period: 1620-1700 464

6 Colonial lyric 469

7 Epic poetry 482

8 Spanish American theatre of the colonial period 488

9 Viceregal culture 495

10 The eighteenth century: narrative forms, scholarship, and learning 500

11 Lyric poetry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 521

12 Spanish American theatre of the eighteenth century 533

13 The nineteenth-century Spanish American novel 538

14 The brief narrative in Spanish America: 1835-1915 565

15 The Spanish American theatre of the nineteenth century 577

16 The essay in Spanish South America: 1800 to Modernismo 580

vili

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

List of contents

17 The essay of nineteenth-century Mexico, Central America, and the

Caribbean 587

18 The gaucho genre 591

Volume 2

1 Modernist poetry 595

2 Modernist prose 613

3 The Vanguardia and its implications 617

4 The literature of Indigenismo 625

5 Afro-Hispanic American literature 632

6 The criollista novel 642

7 The novel of the Mexican Revolution 648

8 The Latin American novel from 1950 to 1975 650

9 The Spanish American novel: recent developments, 1975 to 1990 665

10 Spanish American poetry from 1922 to 1975 668

11 The modern essay in Spanish America 682

12 Literary criticism in Spanish America 689

13 The autobiographical narrative 695

14 The twentieth-century short story in Spanish America 700

15 Spanish American theatre in the twentieth century 713

16 Latin American (Hispanic Caribbean) literature written in the

United States 720

17 Chicano literature 739

Volume 3

1 The literary historiography of Brazil 743

2 Colonial Brazilian literature 747

3 Brazilian poetry from the 1830s to the 1880s 752

4 Brazilian poetry from 1878 to 1902 754

5 The Brazilian theatre up to 1900 759

6 Brazilian fiction from 1800 to 1855 765

7 The Brazilian novel from 1850 to 1900 766

8 Brazilian fiction from 1900 to 1945 776

9 Brazilian prose from 1940 to 1980 782

10 The Brazilian short story 788

11 Brazilian poetry from 1900 to 1922 801

12 Brazilian poetry from Modernism to the 1990s 803

13 The Brazilian theatre in the twentieth century 812

14 Brazilian popular literature (the literatura de cordel) 824

15 Literary criticism in Brazil 828

16 The essay: architects of Brazilian national identity 834

17 The Brazilian and the Spanish American literary traditions: a

contrastive view 837

Index 839

ix

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

Contributors

Severino Joao Albuquerque, University of Wisconsin-Mad'

Mary L. Daniel, University of Wisconsin-Madison

John Gledson, University of Liverpool

David T. Haberly, University of Virginia

K. David Jackson, Yale University

Fábio Lucas, University of Brasilia

J. G. Merquior (deceased)

Massaud Moisés, University of Sao Paulo

Benedito Nunes, Federal University of Para

Marta Peixoto, New York University

Giovanni Pondero, University of Manchester

Thomas E. Skidmore, Brown University

Candace Slater, University of California, Berkeley

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

General preface

In 1893,

t n e renowned Spanish critic and historian Marcelino Menéndez y

Pelayo published his vastly influential Antología de la poesía hispano￾americana: not only the first history of Spanish American poetry, but truly

the first history of Spanish American literature. Th e Antología appeared

just as Modernismo [Modernism], the first poetic movement developed in

Spanish America, wa s achieving its greatest acclaim throughout the

Hispanic world. With Modernismo Spanish American literature came of

age, while the Antología, compiled and prefaced by the most authoritative

critic of the language, gave it institutional substance and academic

respectability. Th e present History appears in the wake of the most

remarkable period of expansion and international recognition ever

enjoyed by Latin American literature. Th e consolidation of Latin Ameri￾can literature as an academic discipline and a recognized category in the

world book market wa s made possible by the achievements of writers as

diverse as Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Julio Cortázar, Joáo

Guimaráes Rosa, José Lezama Lima, Gabriel García Márquez , Octavio

Paz, Mario Vargas Llosa, and many others. García Márque z and Paz

attained the ultimate recognition, the Nobe l Prize. Without the distinc￾tion and accomplishments of these writers, the public at large, not to

mention publishing houses and universities throughout the world, would

have continued to treat Latin American literary production as an appen￾dix to Spanish literature, dependent on someone like Menéndez y Pelayo

for legitimation. It is to them too that this History owes its existence.

Modernismo gave Latin America a place in the Spanish-language literary

world; writers like the ones mentioned above placed it at the center of

world literature.

Latin American literature today enjoys a truly international currency.

Latin American novelists in particular are read and imitated not only in

the west but throughout the world. For instance, Leo Ou-fan-Lee, a

professor of Chinese literature at the University of Chicago, has written

XI

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GENERA L PREFAC E

recently that Latin American writers "now exert a powerful impact on

many young Chinese writers." As recently as thirty years ago such a

statement would have been unthinkable. Given its universal reach and

appeal, it is perhaps appropriate that this History should be the effort of a

group of scholars working in the United States, England, and continental

Europe, as well as in Latin America. Latin American literature is today at

the pinnacle of the international literary movements that began with the

Avant-Garde in the 1920s. Thos e movements as well as their aftermath

are cosmopolitan in essence.

T h e History attempts to take full advantage of its collective and

international cast, while at the same time aiming to be a coherent

statement, conceived within a common set of scholarly guidelines and

academic values. As an academic history, ours is concerned with histori￾cal fact and accuracy, with sources and influences, and with the relation￾ship of literature to history in general. Our work, in other words, takes

full account of the past, not only in the object of our study, but in the

previous studies of that object. We build on what has been done before,

and if and when we do not, we give our reasons. We aim not just to tell a

story, but also to tell how that story has been told before. Aside from those

givens, issuing no doubt from large ideological investments, ours is a work

that is not dominated by narrow philosophical or methodological con￾straints. In contrast to most others, the History is not limited by the

ideological or aesthetic values of a single author. In the invitations to

participate in the project, the editors asked each contributor to be

innovative in his or her approach to the field. Each wa s consulted about

the limits of his or her area of study and about the very assumptions that

make it a coherent subset within Latin American literary history.

Everyone wa s asked, in short, to be self-conscious in her or his choices, not

merely to review a field and to furnish an etat present. In this sense the

History is not only a history of Latin American literature, but equally a

statement on the current status of Latin American historiography. While

the latitude given to each contributor has resulted in some unevenness, the

editors believe that eclecticism enhances the value of the History, both as a

reference tool and as an intellectual venture. Some literary works that

previously had not been given much attention (in some cases none at all)

have been examined by our contributors, thus effectively incorporating

them into the canon. For instance, this is the first history of Latin

American literature to provide detailed coverage of the colonial period,

the works of women writers, and the literature written in Spanish by

Chicano and other Hispanic authors in various regions of North America.

Similarly, this is the first history of Latin American literature to link

meaningfully the works of Afro-Hispanic and Afro-American authors.

T h e History also brings together Brazilian and Spanish American litera￾Xll

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General preface

xiii

tures, giving the former the full individual attention it naturally deserves,

but also underscoring their contiguities, continuities, and discontinuities.

In short, the editors feel that our History is a reassessment and expansion

of the canon of Latin American literature, seen in a broad, new-world

context.

We are fully aware, of course, that large ideological presuppositions

underlie our enterprise. Th e first concerns the very existence of Latin

American literature as such. Since its deliberate creation as a concept and

field of endeavor in the 1830s, Latin American literature has debated

whether it is a literature at all or in fact a series of national literatures that

share a common language. The most prominent writers, from Andres

Bello to Paz, have argued in favor of the existence of a Latin American

literature that transcends national boundaries; and if one thinks of

tradition as being made up by the major works, as we do here, then one

can assume the existence of a Latin American literature. But not everyone

has always been convinced, and we do not question that there are

peculiarities that distinguish some national literatures within Latin

America. Th e case of Brazil is a special one, of course: there is no doubt

that Brazilian literature is a national literature as original and self￾contained as French, Italian, or Spanish literature; its ties to a broader

Latin American literature, however, are strong, if fluid and ever-changing

over time. But Cuban, Mexican, Argentinian, Chilean, and Colombian

literatures are also marked by national characteristics that are undeni￾able. These national inflections are for the most part thematic. For

instance, the lives of Blacks and their African retentions play a very

significant role in Caribbean literature, whereas in the Southern cone it is

the gaucho and his mores that provide a strong thematic strain. There is,

however, a certain homology in the wa y these figures appear in their

respective national or regional literatures, one that extends to how the

Indian is portrayed in areas such as Peru and Mexico . National traditions

stress the differences and remain local. But the stronger authors and works

cross frontiers or dwell in the homology. They constitute a kind of

overarching literature to which all aspire. Our assumption here has been

that the most significant and influential part of Latin American literature

is the one engaged in a transnational intertextual exchange. Th e recuper￾ation of the colonial period, when Spanish America wa s one, is part of this

struggle to constitute a continental literature with a common origin and

discourse. This is one of the strongest forces behind the recent increase in

scholarship on the colonial period.

The breadth of this undertaking is particularly evident in the chapters

on colonial literature, both Brazilian and Spanish American. Until a few

years ago, colonial literature wa s chiefly the object of antiquarian interest,

but in recent years this has changed drastically in fundamental and

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GENERA L PREFAC E

irreversible ways. Th e editors and contributors have sought to reflect that

change. Before the 1960s, few universities (in Latin America or elsewhere)

offered courses on Latin American writers of the colonial period, but now

many include in their programs of study Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz , Bernal

Dia z del Castillo, Garcilaso de la Vega , El Inca, and many others. At the

post-graduate level there are now monographic courses dealing with

those figures, as well as with Columbus, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo,

and many other historians of the discovery and conquest of America.

Scholarship on these authors has increased significantly in scope and

sophistication. There are now international symposia devoted solely to

colonial literature, as well as sessions within established, periodical

meetings, such as the yearly conventions of the Modern Language

Association of America.

Appropriately, given the nature of the chronicles, this History incor￾porates scholarly materials and methodological tools that are not

common to literary scholarship. Th e interdisciplinary bent of this part of

our venture is enhanced by the contributions of Asuncion Lavrin (in

Volume 1) and Thoma s Skidmore (in Volume 3), well-known historians

of Spanish and Portuguese America respectively. This productive linkage

of disciplines is the natural byproduct of recent scholarship. In the past

t wo decades, the study of colonial Spanish American literature has been

enriched by its broad interdisciplinary scope. The reassessment of early

historiography of the Americas combines quite freely the findings of

rhetorical analyses, historical scholarship, anthropology and archae￾ology. This unprecedented and expanding convergence of disciplines has

made possible forms of scholarly cooperation that are exceptional in

Hispanic studies, and that certainly point to the research agendas of the

future.

The incorporation of the colonial period into the study of Latin

American literature has improved the overall quality of the criticism

devoted to this literature by showing the inadequacy of journalistic

approaches that are based exclusively on the most recent literary produc￾tion. This development is intimately tied to the legitimation of Latin

American literature as an academic discipline, a fairly recent phenome￾non. Curiously, this movement also brings out the strong ties Latin

American literature still has with Spanish and Portuguese literatures, both

in the colonial period and in the present. If the Iberian Middle Ages,

Renaissance, and Baroque are such a powerful presence in Latin Ameri￾can literature, then this literature shares a living past with its metropolitan

counterparts. From a scholarly perspective wha t this means is that

scholars of colonial literature (and one hopes, also of modern literature)

must now have a strong background in Medieval, Renaissance, and

Golden Ag e literatures. A full sixth of the History is devoted to the

xiv

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General preface

xv

colonial period, and the chapters devoted to the modern periods reflect the

weight of that living past.

One reason for this increase in colonial studies is that modern Latin

American authors have discovered in the works of the colonial Baroque,

or in the chronicles of the Discovery and Conquest, the starting point of

the literary tradition to which they belong. Octavio Paz's voluminous

study of Sor Juana is but the latest evidence of this phenomenon.

Carpentier, Garcia Marquez , Neruda, and many other contemporary

writers have either written about colonial figures or declared their debt to

them in interviews and other pronouncements. Haroldo de Campos has

developed theories of Brazilian literature based on the continued presence

of the Colonial Baroque, or the self-conscious return to it. Man y

contemporary works, both in Spanish and Portuguese, include topics,

characters, and stories drawn from colonial texts. This return to the

colonial past, highlighting its pertinence in the present, rounds out the

Latin American literary tradition and endows it for the first time with a

density of five centuries. It does not matter that, if examined closely, this is

nothing more than an enabling pretext, or a fable about origins. Literature

creates its own historical fictions, its own history being one of them. Our

History, while being as concrete and factual as possible, reflects the

fullness and influence of that fiction. In this sense, too, ours is a history of

the history of Latin American literature.

T h e editors feel that the History is the first to recognize the richness and

diversity of Latin American literature in the nineteenth century (preceding

Modernismo). This field, which has yet to acquire the institutional

recognition accorded to the colonial period, has of late begun to draw

attention from scholars as well as writers. Th e chapters devoted to both

Spanish American and Brazilian literature of the nineteenth century are

among the most innovative, and constitute the area where the freshest

research is offered by our contributors. Mor e than a history bringing to

closure the study of this promising field, wor k on the nineteenth century in

the History may very well constitute the founding of a new area of

specialization.

The richness and depth of Latin American literature in the colonial

period and during the past century is one of the features, perhaps the

strongest, that distinguishes it from other literatures of the so-called Third

World. In the 1960s, in the wake of the Cuban Revolution and other

political movements aimed at breaking the grip of colonialism, many

Latin American authors allied themselves with authors whose plight

seemed similar to theirs. Regardless of the outcome of those political

alliances the fact is that if by Third World one refers to countries that

emerged from the debacle of nineteenth-century colonialism, then Latin

America, being the product of a much older and different colonialism, had

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