Journeys Through the Labyrinth

In recent years the English-speaking world has at last begun to recognize the enormous diversity and value of contemporary Latin American literature. But while the works of writers like Borges, Garcia Marquez, Allende, Vargas Llosa, Galeano and Asturias are now widely translated, until this book there have been few attempts to give this vast body of writing a critical context. Aimed at the general reader and student, as well as those already familiar with the continent's literature, Journeys through the Labyrinth provides an accessible overview of the main writers, works and movements in twentieth-century Latin American fiction, while giving detailed attention to key texts. In analysing the history of modern Latin American literature, Gerald Martin focuses in particular on the complex shift which occurred between the first great wave of social realist fiction after the First World War and the emergence of so-called 'magical realism' after the Second, a movement which culminated in the