Presents more than two hundred poems by sixteen Spanish and Latin American poets from the Renaissance and baroque periods and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in Spanish and in English translations by noted poets.

Drawn from the acclaimed New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, the articles in this concise new reference book provide a complete survey of the poetic history and practice in every major national literature or cultural tradition in the world. As with the parent volume, which has sold over 10,000 copies since it was first published in 1993, the intended audience is general readers, journalists, students, teachers, and researchers. The editor's principle of selection was balance, and his goal was to embrace in a structured and reasoned way the diversity of poetry as it is known across the globe today. In compiling material on 106 cultures in 92 national literatures, the book gives full coverage to Indo-European poetries (all the major Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages, as well as other obscure ones such as Hittite), the ancient middle Eastern poetries (Hebrew, Persian, Sumerian, and Assyro-Babylonian), subcontinental Indian poetries (the widest linguistic diversity), Asian and Pacific poetries (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Mongolian, and half a dozen others), continental American poetries (all the modern Western cultures and native Indian in North, Central, and South American regions), and African poetries (ancient and emergent, oral and written).

A leading critic of contemporary Spanish poetry examines here the work of ten important poets who came to maturity in the immediate post-Civil War period and whose major works appeared between 1956 and 1971: Francisco Brines; Eladio Cabañero; Angel Crespo; Gloria Fuertes; Jaime Gil de Biedma; Angel González; Manuel Mantero; Claudio Rodríguez; Carlos Sahagún; and José Angel Valente. Although each of these poets has developed an individual style, their work has certain common characteristics: use of the everyday language and images of contemporary Spain, development of language codes and intertextual references, and, most strikingly, metaphoric transformations and surprising reversals of the reader's expectations. Through such means these poets clearly invite their readers to join them in journeys of poetic discovery. Andrew P. Debicki's is the first detailed stylistic analysis of this generation of poets, and the first to approach their work through the particularly appropriate methods developed in "reader-response" criticism.

Published by Boydell & Brewer Inc.

Drawing on original contributions from four major contemporary Spanish voices--Luis Muñoz, Abraham Gragera, Josep M. Rodríguez, and Ada Salas--The Poetics of Epiphany in the Spanish Lyric of Today argues that for these writers the poem is the fundamental means of exploring the nature of both knowledge and poetry.

This critical study of the group of remarkably talented poets who flourished in Spain between the First World War and the Spanish Civil War includes copious quotations accompanied by English prose translations. Mr Morris treats his poets as a group, showing how they shared certain themes and attitudes. He begins with a general study of the generation as a whole and then examines the use of tradition; the zest and levity of the Jazz Age; the exaltation of life as a shared attitude; then its converse; the escape from life; and finally the expression in complex imagery of personal tensions and disturbances. These are often 'difficult' poets, but become less so when they are sympathetically examined in this way and in relation to earlier literary traditions. Mr Morris enables the reader to take bearings and establish relationships which are enhanced by reproductions of photographs of the poets.

During her lifetime, Gloria Fuertes achieved the status of a controversial cultural icon, both through her poetry for adults and through her poetry, recorded readings, and television programs for juveniles. This collection of lively essays, by authors who specialize in contemporary Spanish poetry, approaches the works of Gloria Fuertes from various theoretical and critical perspectives. In Her Words speaks to the inherent complexity of Gloria Fuertes's poetry, as manifested in its ultimate indeterminacy and undecidability, yet attests to this poet's abiding value as the voice of the marginalized-women, the poor, children, all the invisible members of society-who were silenced during the years of Spanish dictatorship under Franco. This book manifests the prescience of Fuertes's stands on a variety of social and cultural issues, from women's changing roles in society, gender and sexuality, identity within a society held captive by a dictatorial regime, to more universal themes such as love, justice, ethics, nature, and obsolete societal norms. In Her Words decisively addresses and ultimately rejects the Spanish cultural elite's inclination to disavow Fuertes's influence and reveals how her voice has shaped succeeding generations of Spanish poets and underscored the ubiquity of her verse in contemporary Spanish literature and culture. The subtlety and diversity of the essays included in this volume attest to the power of Gloria Fuertes's poetic creativity, her ability to appeal to a wide audience both in Spain and abroad, and her place in the contemporary Spanish poetic canon.

Activism through Poetry: Critical Spanish Poems in Translation is a compiled anthology of translated poems, which explore cultural, political, social, and ecological issues in the context of contemporary Spain. The work highlights the active role that poetry plays in the debate of these issues. The anthology begins with an introduction, which provides a theoretical framework and a critical analysis of each poem. It is an important contribution in the academic context and also in the more general context of international social and political action. It constitutes the first bilingual translation of selected poems written by well-known and emergent contemporary critical poets from Spain. The five sections (Historical Memory, Ecology, Political and Social Issues, Patriarchy, and Capitalism) feature four poems with a total of twenty poems (ten written by women and ten written by men). These poets are activists whose poetry comments on society and, more importantly, wants to have an impact on it. The poetic art that is born from ethical commitment has the potential to call attention not only to the realities of the world we live in but also to the possibilities for transformation. Poetry, therefore, is ultimately a political act.

"Brines's seven poetry collections offer a sustained inquiry into three fundamental philosophical themes: knowledge, the present moment, and non-being. These themes, however, are presented as conflictual differences. The numerous poetic voices heard throughout his poetry continually wrestle with knowledge perpetually oscillating with ignorance, the present moment unceasingly becoming past, and human existence endlessly displaying its own finitude. In this study, the critical interpretation of these themes leads to the critical exploration of language, the signifying process of language, and the warring forces of signification. The sign is thus viewed as a structure of difference and as such it endlessly displays the duplicitous nature of language engaged in a semantic struggle with itself."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved