The Spanish American Regional Novel

Carlos Alonso’s study provides a radical re-examination of the novela de la tierra or regional novel, which plays a central part in the development of Latin American fiction in the first half of the twentieth century. He identifies the regional novel as a specific literary manifestation of the persistent meditation on cultural authochthony that has characterized Latin American cultural production from its beginnings, and which in his view springs from Latin America’s problematic relationship with Modernity. He proposes a view of the autochthonous as a discourse rather than a referent. Professor Alonso presents his argument through challenging readings of three works that are universally acknowledged as archetypes of the autochthonous modality: Rivera’s La voragine, Gallegos’s Dona Barbara and Guiraldes’s Don Segundo Sombra.

Acknowledgements; 1. The exoticism of the autochthonous; 2. The novela de la tierra; 3. Don Segundo Sombra; 4. Dona Barbara; 5. La voragine; 6. Epilogue; Bibliography.

From the hardback review: ‘I have nothing but praise for the intelligence and depth of insight exemplified in this book … Professor Alonso’s definition will become the classic point of departure in all discussions of the novela de la tierra’ Rene Prieto, Southern Methodist University

From the hardback review: ‘Alonso reexamines a category of Latin American fiction all but explained away in the past. He justifies the raison d’etre of this category with arguments that by far surpass, both in intelligence and ingenuity, anything written on the subject before him … This is a very original, highly stimulating book.’ Sylvia Molloy, Yale University