The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Novel from 1600 to the Present by Harriet Turner (review)

Abstract

MLR, 100.3, 2005 853 beset by desolation, and a feeling of orphanhood from the surrounding world. A precocious death wish is ever present. These 'orphaned' figures develop, in the later prose, into a lacerated monster child, self-consciously rebellious, out to shock and transgress. Persistent and perverse sexual innuendoes, playful lavatorial humour, and deliberate indulgence in obscenity are marks of these texts 'issuing from Artaudian torment'(p. 157). Pizarnik's self-image was that of a poete maudit and Mackintosh explores in some detail her attraction to absurd and grotesque writing and her many affinities with Surrealism. However, as is pointed out, Pizarnik did not share in the surrealists' faith in language, but was haunted by the anxiety of searching for a language that would express what she knew was inexpressible. Mackintosh's scholarly work offersa contribution to the study of Argentine litera? ture in many ways. This is achieved, principally, by demythologizing notions of childhood through the study of two crucially influential writers, but also by its dis? cussion of avant-garde trends and their presence in the works of both Ocampo and Pizarnik, and through its brief but very pertinent discussion ofthe social and political context in which the literature was produced. But perhaps its greatest contribution lies in Mackintosh's careful and sensitive reading ofthe texts. This is exemplified, for instance, by her comments on the translation ofone short story,'La leccion de dibujo', where she points out that the English version misses the ambiguity of the original, which suggests not only the Peter Pan-like protagonist's resistance to growing old, a process, but to old age (ser grande; tener la edad) and the fixityof its connotations (P- 93). Mackintosh's erudite exposition of her arguments is supported and enhanced by her imaginative use of epigraphs to suggest interesting intertextual links. Even in an era of thorough electronic search engines, the comprehensive bibliography that accompanies this work will prove a valuable aid to all researchers of the field. University College London Evelyn Fishburn The Cambridge Companion to theSpanish Novel from 1600 to thePresent. Ed. by Har? riet Turner and Adelaida Lopez Martinez. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer? sity Press. 2003. xxxvi + 304pp. ?16.99. ISBN 0-521-77815-8. This new Cambridge Companion seeks to offerits readership insights into the most striking and fascinating aspects of the Spanish novel. It provides an introductory essay, thirty-one pages on the period up to the 1820s, then two larger sections on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, before finishing with an account of writing about writing over the centuries. The Companion permits each of the multiple authors to pursue their own approach, while maintaining overall goals of contextualization, theorization , clarity,and coverage. Neither a straightforward reference work nor simply a collection of essays, the book blends strengths from each of these genres, offering a broad knowledge base combined with fully developed critical analysis. At its best, the Companion contains up-to-date insights in accessible, bite-sized chunks. It is good to see promoted, alongside venerable figures of the old canon, women writers of modernism and earlier, and 1920s avant-garde prose. Those seeking a concise way into contemporary criticism will find essays ranging over issues such as the impact of feminism, the question of representation in the 'Realist' novel, and contextualization within modernity and postmodernity. The Companion is up to date too in extensively treating the novel since 1960. At times, it offersa beneficial jolt to preconceptions, in Rebecca Haidt on the importance ofthe eighteenth-century novel, in Elisa Marti-Lopez on the significance of nineteenth-century popular fiction,and in provocative takes on literary history (Anthony J. Close on the Quixote, for example). 854 Reviews There are some problems with the selective slant of the essays as a whole: thirty-one pages out ofaround three hundred is not enough to do justice to the entire period up to the 1820s; in the twentieth century, discussion ofthe years after 1940, and especially post-1960, occupies disproportionate space; and some important aspects ofthe period 1800-67 are neglected, notably the more experimental fictionand (but foran insightful intervention by Randolph Pope on the subject of Larra) the historical novel. In places...