2. Literature Surveys, Subject Encyclopedias, and Subject Dictionaries
All time periods
The surveys listed here are excellent introductory sources. In addition to biographical information and literary criticism, most contain bibliographies of varying lengths and with varying amounts of detail. For sources with detail on individual countries, see, for example, guides such as the Handbook of Latin American Literature in this section and Modern Latin American Fiction Writers, First series and Second series (Part 3 of this guide).
Bio-bibliographies with substantial bibliographic information are listed in 3: Bibliographies and Bibliographical Guides.
Alegría, Fernando. Nueva historia de la novela hispanoamericana. Hanover, N.H.: Ediciones del Norte, 1986.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7082.N7 A55x 1986
Covers the 19th-20th centuries with chapters on the romantic novela, modernism, the Mexican revolution, the 60s, regionalism and neorealism (first and second movements).
Alboukrek, Aarón. Diccionario de escritores hispanoamericanos: de siglo XVI al XX / Aarón Alhoukrek, Esther Herrera. Buenos Aires: Larousse, 1992.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.3 .A37 1992x
Short biographical entries with listings of representative works. Excludes secondary sources.
Becco, Horacio Jorge. Diccionario de literatura hispanoamericana: autores. [Buenos Aires]: Huemul, 1984.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.Z99 B42 x 1984
Brief bio-bibliographical entries covering all periods. Portraits.
Diccionario de autores iberoamericanos / dirigido
por Pedro Shimose. Madrid: Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Dirección
General de Relaciones Culturales, Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana,
1982.
Widener: RR3218.3
Diccionario enciclopedico de las letras de America Latina.
[1. ed.] [Caracas]: Biblioteca Ayacucho: Monte Avila Editores Latinoamericana,
1995-1998.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.D515 1995
Survey articles on authors, works and literary movements and publications. Includes Bibliografia selecta of authors' primary and secondary works.
Diccionario de literatura espanola e hispanoamericana.
Alianza diccionarios. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1993.
Widener: RR 3198.10; copy 2 in WID-LC PQ6006.D52 1993x
Short, signed articles and bibliographies for each entry. More recent authors appear in general entries, such as Hispanoamerica: Narrativa actual or Hispanoamerica: Poésia actual. (See prefatory pages for "Indice de voces colectivas.") Title index.
Encyclopedia of Latin American literature.
London; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
Widener: RR 3218.10
Lamont: REF.ROOM PQ7081.A1 E56 1997
Encyclopedia of Latin American theater / edited by Eladio Cortés and Mirta Barrea-Marlys. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003.This one-volume work contains lengthy survey articles on writers, works, topics along with survey articles on the literatures of individual countries. Lists of works following each article include biographies, selected works, editions, further reading, some interviews and bibliographies.
Widener: RR 3214.5
Entries are arranged by country with an introduction./overview for each country followed by sources on playwrights (biography, works and secondary works), independent theatres and cultural movements. Includes Latin American, Nuyorican and Chicano theater.
Foster, David William. Latin American writers on gay and lesbian themes: a bio-critical sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.3 .F62 1994
Succint biographies and appraisals of 130 authors followed by short bibliographies of texts and criticism.
Handbook of Latin American literature / compiled
by David William Foster. New York: Garland Pub., 1987.
Widener: RR3212.9
Lamont: REF.ROOM PQ7081.A1 H36 1987
General works followed by chapters on the literatures of various countries: long survey articles (in English) and briefly annotated bibliographies of critical work.
Latin American writers. New York: Scribner, 1989. 3 v.
Widener: RR 3219. 20
Lamont: REF.ROOM PQ7081.A1 L37 1989
Introductions to Spanish American and Brazilian literature are followed by a chronological table of literary and political events from 1415-1987. Entries contain brief biographical information, a description of the writer’s production and bibliography.
Latin American writers. Supplement I. New York:
Scribner's Sons, 2002.
Widener: RR 3219.20.1
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.3 .L63 1997x
The Oxford companion to Spanish literature / edited by Philip Ward. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.An emphasis on authors from ten countries, the majority from Argentina, Mexico and Brazil. Biographical sketches, commentary on works, and bibliographies of criticism and interviews. Non-fiction writers included.
Widener: RR 3198.5; Widener: WID-LC PQ6006 .O94 1978x
Lamont: REF.ROOM PQ6006 .O93 x
Platas Tasende, Ana María. Diccionario de términos literarios. Madrid: Espasa, 2000.Largely composed of author entries, with entries for major works, literary terms and movements. Covers Basque, Catalan and Galician and Spanish American literatures. Bibliographic citations accompany articles.
Widener: WID-LC PN41 .P55 2000
Bibliography of critical works and literary histories included.
Specific time periods
Alegría, Fernando. Nueva historia de la novela hispanoamericana. Hanover, N.H.: Ediciones del Norte, 1986.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7082.N7 A55x 1986
Covers the 19th-20th centuries with chapters on the romantic novela, modernism, the Mexican revolution, the 60s, regionalism and neorealism (first and second movements).
Alboukrek, Aarón. Diccionario de escritores hispanoamericanos: de siglo XVI al XX / Aarón Alhoukrek, Esther Herrera. Buenos Aires: Larousse, 1992.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.3 .A37 1992x
Short biographical entries with listings of representative works. Excludes secondary sources.
Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean literature, 1900-2003 / edited by Daniel Balderston and Mike Gonzalez. London; New York: Routledge, 2004.
Widener: RR 3219.30
Particularly useful for introduction and overview of the literatures of each country. Overview and general bibliography.
Flores, Angel. Spanish American authors: the twentieth century. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1992.
Widener: RR3216.8
Planned to include major novelists and poets from Central and South America, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, this collection of essays on over 330 authors includes bibliographies of books and journal articles in Spanish and English.
Foster, David William. Modern Latin American literature / compiled and edited by David William Foster, Virginia Ramos Foster.
New York: Ungar, 1975.
Widener: RR3212.15
A compilation of international critical commentary, "presenting twentieth-century Latin American writers through the eyes of leading critics in their own countries and abroad, with particular stress on their reception in the United States." Articles from Spanish and Portuguese journals are translated into English; other commentaries are from English-language sources. The core list includes 137 writers and selections (and excerpts) of criticism are from books on individual authors (or books dealing with themes of several writers), literary histories, encyclopedias, academic periodicals, literary reviews and book reviews.
Foster, David William. The 20th-century Spanish-American novel: a bibliographic guide. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1975.
Widener: RR3212.13
A working bibliography of basic monographs and critical sources for 56 authors "most commonly studied in the U.S., Europe and Latin America." Dissertations, popular press reviews and cursory reviews in other magazines omitted.
From romanticism to modernismo in Latin America / edited with introductions by David William Foster and Daniel Altamiranda. New York: Garland Pub., 1997.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.A1 F76 1997
A collection of essays in English or Spanish on prominent authors, arranged by birthdate.
Hispanic writers: a selection of sketches from Contemporary authors / Bryan Ryan, editor. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.3 .H58 1991
Basic bio-bibliographical source containing over 400 entries on twentieth-century Hispanic writers, including major literary figures, social and political figures, scholars, historians and journalists and other lesser-known authors. Largely Spanish-American writers.
Rela, Walter. Literatura hispanoamericana, siglos XIX-XX: bibliografía selecta. Montevideo, Uruguay: Ediciones "El Galeón," [1995?]
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.Z99 R445 1995x
General bibliographies, national bibliographies (by genre), Dictionaries (general and national), History and Criticism, General and National (by genre). Selective. No annotations.
Sonntag, Iliana L. Twentieth-century poetry from Spanish America: an index to Spanish language and bilingual anthologies / Iliana L. Sonntag Blay. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1998.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7082.P7 Z997 1998x
Lists poems of over 2000 authors published in anthologies published since 1950, covering Spanish Latin America with the exception of Brazil. Author/title and first line indices.
Twentieth-century Spanish American literature since 1960 / edited with introductions by David William Foster, Daniel Altamiranda. New York: Garland Pub., 1997.
Widener: WID-LC PQ 7081 .A1 T84 1997
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.A1 T842 1997
Writers of the Spanish colonial period / edited with
introductions by David William Foster, Daniel Altamiranda. New York: Garland
Pub., 1997.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7081.A1 W75 1997
Covers the period from discovery and colonization of Latin America to the beginning of the 19th century. Critical essays of three groupings of texts: reports, chronicles and Renaissance epics, regionally marked texts from the Baroque period, and texts from the later part of the colonial period.
