The Cambridge Companion to Mario Vargas Llosa

by Efrain Kristal (Editor), John King (Editor)

Overview

One of the major novelists in world literature over the last five decades, Mario Vargas Llosa (b. 1936) is also one of Latin America's most engaging public intellectuals, a critic of art and culture, and a playwright of distinction. This Companion's chapters chart the development of Vargas Llosa's writings from his rise to prominence in the early 1960s to the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010. The volume traces the development of his literary trajectory and the ways in which he has re-invented himself as a writer. His vast output of narrative fiction is the main focus, but the connections between his concerns as a creative writer and his rich career as a cultural and political figure are also teased out in this engaging, informative book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521682855
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/15/2011
Series:	Cambridge Companions to Literature
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Efraín Kristal is Professor and Chair in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles.

John King is Professor of Comparative American Studies at the University of Warwick.

Table of Contents

Chronology; Introduction Efraín Kristal and John King; 1. Reality, rebellion, and the paradox of power: an overview of Mario Vargas Llosa's literary themes Alonso Cueto; 2. The early novels Gerald Martin; 3. The total novel and the novella Efraín Kristal; 4. Humour and irony Michael Wood; 5. The historical novel Juan E. de Castro and Nicholas Birns; 6. Innocence and corruption Fiona Mackintosh; 7. The political novels Deborah Cohn; 8. The erotic novels Roy C. Boland; 9. The dictator novel Clive Griffin; 10. From Utopia to reconciliation Efraín Kristal; 11. The essays John King; 12. The memoir Kelly Austin; 13. The plays Evelyn Fishburn; 14. Film and the novels Carolina Sitnisky; 15. The interview Efraín Kristal and John King with Mario Vargas Llosa; Further reading; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"This excellent, up-to-date companion offers not only a general index and a chronology but also indexes for selected works by Vargas Llosa and fictional characters, and a list of further reading."
Choice

"The scope and depth of the essays, only hinted at here, make this book an indispensable source for future studies of Vargas Llosa as a fiction writer and as one of the most important intellectuals of our time."
Malva E. Filer, Literature and Arts of the Americas

From the Publisher