Oblivion and Stone: A Selection of Contemporary Bolivian Poetry and Fiction - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557285128 ISBN 13: 9781557285126

Publisher: University of Arkansas Press, 1998

Synopsis

In a literature where recognition is hard earned, this anthology demonstrates what distinguishes contemporary Bolivian fiction and poetry from the rest of Latin American writing and shows clearly how Bolivian writers relate to that tradition.

Bolivia is a landlocked nation of mountains and high, arid plains, a place native writer JesÚs Urzagasti calls the “Land of Silence.” This crucible of indigenous and European influences has contributed to the creation of a writing style that is always down-to-earth, often grittily realistic.

From this fundamental base, Bolivian writers express provincial customs and values, decry political oppression, and sound universal themes of isolation, even resignation; but, more often, they show the will to move forward as a people. This rich thematic mix encourages what critic Edgar Lora has called the “dynamic and vigorous social dis course” and the resulting “subversive, militant, and revolutionary” qualities of Bolivian literature.

Editor Sandra Reyes has gathered a panoramic sampling of twenty two poets and eighteen fiction writers. Focusing predominantly on living, practicing writers, this anthology defines the current literary voice of Bolivia and gives us a distillation of the contemporary Bolivian consciousness.

About this title

About the Author

Sandra Reyes also edited and translated One More Stripe to the Tiger: A Selection of Contem orary Chilean Poetry and Fiction (University of Arkansas Press, 1989). Her translation of Nicanor Parra’s Sermons and Homilies of the Christ at Elqui was awarded the 1984 Richard Wilbur Award for Poetry in Translation from the American Literary Translators Association.

From the Back Cover

Editor Sandra Reyes has gathered a panoramic sampling of the work of twenty-three poets and eighteen fiction writers. Focusing predominantly on living practicing writers this anthology defines the current literary voice of Bolivia and gives us a distillation of the contemporary Bolivian consciousness.

From the Inside Flap

Editor Sandra Reyes has gathered a panoramic sampling of the work of twenty-three poets and eighteen fiction writers. Focusing predominantly on living practicing writers this anthology defines the current literary voice of Bolivia and gives us a distillation of the contemporary Bolivian consciousness.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557285128
• ISBN 13: 9781557285126
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296
• Editor: Reyes Sandra