"The great Argentinian writer Julio Cortazar (1914-84) was immersed in one of the most vibrant and revolutionary intellectual scenes of the last century, the Paris of the 1950s and 60s. Yet his often highly cerebral work has never received the close philosophical attention it deserves. Moran's book fills this critical lacuna. Rather than indiscriminately applying 'theory' to Cortazar, it aims to show that his work both engages with and often foreshadows many of the problems which were to become central to so-called poststructuralist philosophy and poetics. This study demonstrates that Cortazar remains enduringly, problematically modern."

OrIoff shows that Cortázar did not become a political writer as a result of the Cuban Revolution, as is often claimed, but rather that the representation of the political was present in Cortázar's very first writings. The book analyses the evolution of the representation of distinct political elements throughout Cortázar's writings, mainly with reference to the novels and the so-called collage books, which have so far received only limited critical attention. The author also alludes to some short stories and refers to many of Cortázar's non-literary texts. Through this chosen corpus, the book follows a thematic thread, showing that politics was present in Cortázar's fiction from his very first writings, and not - as he himself tended to claim - only following his conversion to socialism. The study aims to show that contrary to what many critics have argued, this political conversion did not divide the writer into an irreconcilable before and after - the apolitical versus the political - but rather it simply shifted the emphasis of the representation of the political that already existed in Cortázar's writings. Carolina Orloff is an independent scholar working on research projects in the UK and in Argentina.

In recent years, schools have started introducing more inclusive syllabi emphasizing the works and ideas of previously overlooked or underrepresented writers. Readers of all ages can now explore the rich contributions of writers from around the world. These writers have various backgrounds, and unlike most writers from the U.S. or the United Kingdom, information on them in English can be difficult to find. Encyclopedia of World Writers: 1800 to the Present covers the most important writers outside of the U.S., Britain, and Ireland since 1800. More than 330 insightful, A-to-Z entries profile novelists, poets, dramatists, and short-story writers whose works are anthologized in textbooks or assigned in high school English classes. Entries range in length from 200 to 1,000 words each and include a biographical sketch, synopses of major works, and a brief bibliography. Dozens of entries are new to this edition and many existing entries have been updated and significantly expanded with new "Critical Analysis" sections. Coverage includes: Chinua Achebe Margaret Atwood Roberto Bolaño Albert Camus Khalid Hosseini Victor Hugo Mohammad Iqbal Franz Kafka Stieg Larsson Mario Vargas Llosa Naghib Mahfouz Gabriel García Márquez Kenzaburo Oe Marcel Proust Leo Tolstoy Emile Zola and more.

Praise for the print edition:"...a useful and engaging reference to the vast world of the novel in world literature."

With such figures as Jorge Luis Borges, Miguel ngel Asturias and Gabriel Garc a M rquez (both the latter Nobel Prizewinners) Spanish American fiction is now unquestionably an integral part of the mainstream of Western literature. This book draws on the most recent research in describing the origins and development of narrative in Spanish America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tracing the pattern from Romanticism and Realism, through Modernismo, Naturalism and Regionalism to the Boom and beyond. It shows how, while seldom moving completely away from satire, social criticism and protest, Spanish American fiction has evolved through successive phases in which both the conceptions of the writer's task and presumptions about narrative and reality have undergone radical alterations. DONALD SHAW holds the Brown Forman Chair of Spanish American literature in the University of Virginia.