Allende, Buitrago, Luiselli: aproximaciones teóricas al concepto del ‘Bildungsroman’ femenino by Leasa Y. Lutes

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MLRy 98.2, 2003 491 light of Gerard Genette's theory of hypertextuality. Forne uses Genette's theory, as laid out in his book Palimpsestes (Paris: Seuil, 1982), to examine the rewriting of the memoirs of former pirate Alexander Olivier Exquemelin in the two novels by the Mexican writer,with particular focus on form and theme. Following the structure of the doctoral thesis on which La pirateria textual is based, in the firstthree chapters of the book Forne establishes the con texts forher subsequent reading of Boullosa's work in the last two chapters. She firstsituates the 'hypertexts' Son vacas, somospuercos and El medico de los piratas within Boullosa's fictional work as a whole, as well as within the more general context of trends in contemporary Latin American literature, in particular the 'new' historical novel. Forne also undertakes a survey of the existing criticism of Boullosa's work, taking issue especially with postmodernist interpreta? tions ofthe firstnovel, Son vacas, somospuercos, as well as taking critics to task fornot reading the 'hypotext', Exquemelin's Los piratas de America (1678). The third chap? ter deals precisely with the memoirs of the pirate and also explains Genette's theory of hypertextuality in some detail. In her analysis of the Mexican writer's novels in the final chapters, Forne points out that, while Boullosa's hypertexts remain faithful to the original plot of Exquemelin's work, there is evidence in both of a difference in style. In the analysis of Son vacas, somos puercos (chapter 4), for example, Forne highlights textual 'amplifications', such as the inclusionof new characters such as Ella and Negro Miel, and thematical 'transformations', including the stronger presence of female characters and the greater role of the indios bravos. Forne also maintains that there is a greater subjective presence on the part of the narrator-protagonist in Boullosa's 1991 novel, which, she underlines, is neither a subversive nor an alternative version to Exquemelin's memoirs but a complementary one. Similarly, Forne reads El medico de los piratas as a further variation of the hypotext with a more objective narrator than in the earlier novel. While more consideration might have been given to adapting the style and structure ofthe original Ph. D thesis to the formof a book, there is no doubt that this is a rigorous and well-executed study of the relationship between Exquemelin's memoirs and the two novels by Boullosa using Genette's theory. Goldsmiths College, University of London Claire Lindsay Allende, Buitrago, Luiselli: aproximaciones teoricas al concepto del 'Bildungsroman' femenino . By Leasa Y. Lutes. (Currents in Comparative Romance Languages and Literatures, 87) New York: Lang. 2000. 130 pp. ?29. ISBN 0-8204-4472-3. This work by Leasa Lutes is an original comparative exercise which brings together the three women writers of the title in the light of new feminist interpretations of the concept of the Bildungsroman or novel of formation. One of the qualities of this book is that it appears as a contribution to the development of the body of scholarship de? voted to the 'female Bildungsroman' not only in the field of Latin American women's writing but in the area of women's writing in general. The purpose of the study is to analyse the differentvariations of formation as experienced by the protagonists of three novels by three writers from Latin America: Isabel Allende's Eva Luna (1987), Fanny Buitrago's Senora de la miel (1993), and Alessandra Luiselli's Reina de corazones (1986). In order to produce an organized analysis of the development of these characters according to or against the model of formation, the study is divided into fivechapters which attempt to achieve a thorough examination of the process of development of the women in the texts, Eva, Teodora, and Anna respectively. Chapter 1 is conceived as an introduction to the study and attempts to establish the theoretical framework which will be used foranalysing the differentworks. It offersa 492 Reviews quite up-to-date literature review in which the author provides a brief history ofthe term Bildungsroman, its development and main problematic aspects, and its application to narrative works, especially by women. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 concentrate on...