In Search of the Latin American Faulkner

Book excerpt: In Search of the Latin American Faulkner is an exhaustive exploration of the shifting interaction between Faulkner's works and the literary repertory of Spanish-speaking Latin America that went on for half a century. Fayen's study sketches a previously unexplored history of the evolution of the modern Latin American literary establishment. This work describes the pre-history of contemporary Latin American narrative, with particular attention to the Spanish-speaking Latin American 'boom'-- from the early dominance of peninsular Spanish literary norms to the gradual weakening of these norms and the complete opening up to foreign innovations, when Latin American literature came into its own. Contents: In Search of a Theoretical Model; The Ambiguous Problem of Influence; Polysystem Theory: Performing Descriptive Translation Studies; A Shift of Norms in the Latin American Polysystem; Faulkner's U.S. Critical Reception; Critical Reception of Faulkner in Latin America; The Translations; Conclusion.