4. Surveys and Subject Dictionaries
This section includes sources for surveys of the literature (information on authors, concepts, themes, literary movements, etc.) and subject dictionaries, both of which may also contain bibliographies of primary and secondary sources.
General Literature Sources
Dictionary of literary biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978-
Widener: RR 3129.5
The DLB contains lengthy biography with critical commentary and bibliography of primary and secondary works of a wide range of writers living and deceased. Some brief articles appear; for major figures, comprehensive pieces include biographical materials, references, the location of the author’s papers. Articles are accompanied by drawings, photographs, paintings and copies of manuscript pages. Use the index in the last volume of the series to find all authors (each volume contains a cumulative index). Examples of volumes in the series: Volume 108: Twentieth-Century Spanish poets, first series; Vol. 113 (1992), Modern Latin-American Fiction Writers, first series, covers Borges, Carpentier, Cortázar, Garcia Marquez, Rulfo, among others; Vol. 134: Twentieth Century Spanish Poets; Vol. 145: Modern Latin American Fiction Writers, second series.
Spanish and Spanish American Sources
Diccionario de literatura espanola e hispanoamericana.
Alianza diccionarios. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1993.
Widener: RR 3198.10
Widener: WID-LC PQ6006.D52 1993x
Short, signed articles and bibliographies for each entry. More recent authors appear in general entries, such as Hipanoamerica: Narrativa actual or Hispoanoamerica: Poésia actual. (See prefatory pages for "Indice de voces colectivas.") Title index.
Dictionary of the literature of the Iberian peninsula.Westport.:
Greenwood Press, 1993.
Widener: RR3198
Includes literature from the tenth century to the mid-1980s, with representatives from Catalan, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish literatures. Primary texts and criticism noted for each entry.
Oxford companion to Spanish literature. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1978.
Widener: RR 3198.5
WID-LC PQ6006.O94 1978x
Lamont: REF.ROOM PQ6006.O93 x
Good point of departure for short entries on authors, literary movements and themes and individual works in Spanish and Latin American literature. Most useful for its listings of key collections, translations and critical works.
Simón Díaz, José. Manual de bibliografía de la literatura española. 3a ed. ref., corr. y aum. Madrid: Gredos, D.L. 1980.
Widener: RR3191.5
A comprehensive bibliographic work from the beginnings through 1961. Six sections are included: Fuentes generales, Edad Media, Siglos de Oro, Siglo XVIII, Siglo XIX, Siglo XX. Historias de la literatura, Colleciónes de textos, Antologías, Monografías (different periods, genres, themes) and other categories of materials are listed. In the Siglos de Oro section, extensive listings of Autores y obras will be useful.
Spanish women writers : a bio-bibliographical source book
/ edited by Linda Gould Levine, Ellen Engelson Marson, and Gloria Feiman
Waldman. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.
Widener: RR 3201.5
Schlesinger Ref. 016.86 L665s
Bio-bibliographical articles on selected women writers in Spain. Covers the 14th to the 20th century.
Latin American Sources
Diccionario enciclopedico de las letras de America Latina. [1. ed.] (3 v.) [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.
Encyclopedia of Latin American literature. London; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
Widener: RR 3218.10
Lamont: REF.ROOM PQ7081.A1 E56 1997
This one-volume work contains 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.
Foster, David William. Modern Latin American literature / compiled and edited by David William Foster, Virginia Ramos Foster. New York: Ungar, 1975. 2 v.
Widener: RR3212.15; Hilles 860.9 F75
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 journals are translated into English; other excerpts from commentaries are from English-language sources. The core list includes 137 writers and selections from commentaries are from books on individual authors or books dealing with themes of several writers, literary histories, encyclopedias, academic periodicals, literary reviews and book reviews.
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 with bibliographies appended to each article.
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
Diccionario del teatro iberoamericano / Ricardo
de la Fuente Ballesteros y Julia Amezúa, (eds.) Salamanca: Ediciones
Almar, 2002.
Widener: WID-LC PQ7082.D7 D53 2002
Contains brief signed entries and bibliographies for playwrights and other concepts related to Latin American theatre with an emphasis on the contemporary period.