Mercè Rodoreda: A Selected and Annotated Bibliography (2002-2011). With a listing of Mercè Rodoreda's works and their translations compiled by Judith Sánchez Gordaliza by Kathleen McNerney (review)

This comprehensive and wide-ranging selected and annotated bibliography of Mercè Rodoreda, one the forerunners of Catalan literature written by women, is an excellent sequel to Maria Isidra Mencos's 2002 Mercè Rodoreda: una bibliografia crítica (1963-2001). Kathleen McNerney, a scholar who greatly impacted the dissemination of Mercè Rodoreda's work in the United States, has compiled an exhaustive and detailed bibliography that will serve well, not only Catalan literature scholars, but also a much wider audience interested in other aspects of Rodoreda's artistic and sociohistorical milieu. The bibliography is all-inclusive and it stems from the events associated with the 2008 centennial celebration of Rodoreda's life and oeuvre. The first part, "Commented Bibliography of Criticism," covers in alphabetical order books and articles that offer interpretations of a variety of genres and artistic expressions of the Catalan author's oeuvre from 2001: narrative, poetry, theater, painting, journalism, correspondence, as well as commentaries on the experience of exile, and other important remarks on Rodoreda's work by prominent literary figures such as Gabriel García Márquez.

An Appendix titled "Works by Students and for Young People, Special commemorative Projects, and Unpublished Papers" follows this section. The ensuing segment includes an index of Rodoreda's works and criticism, a very useful tool as an overview of the standing and value of the author's work worldwide. By including entries by students and reflections from people who lived in the rural Ampurdanian area, where she spent the last years of her life, McNerney offers a broad and insightful compilation of Rodoredan voices that encompass a much wider audience.

The second part of the volume, "Mercè Rodoreda's Works," compiled by Judith Sánchez Gordaliza, whose 2008 dissertation examined the reception and dissemination of Rodoreda's works, literary studies, translations and whereabouts of her literary production in libraries worldwide, extends on Laia Miret's Mercè Rodoreda: A Selected and Annotated Bibliography (1963-2001). It is organized in two sections: original editions and translations of Rodoreda's works. All genres are represented and each subdivision complements the listings of original works with anthologies and publications in other venues such as periodicals and miscellaneous works. Letters written by and to the author are also included. Listing all the translations – more than eighteen languages are included – offers a perspective of the importance of Rodoreda's work and its wide outreach. The most universal novel, La plaça del Diamant (1962), has been translated to thirty-three languages, Occitan being one of the last languages it was translated to in 2009. The stories, a very important part of Rodoreda's literary work, are also included in the selection, emphasizing the latest edition published on par with the celebration of "Any Mercè Rodoreda" in 2008. Tots els contes (All the Short Stories) contains all the stories of the three great anthologies by Mercè Rodoreda. Poetry and epistolary selections are included as well. Montserrat Casals' compilation of the letters written by Rodoreda to her publisher, Joan Sales, is celebrated. Sales was a great supporter of the author and predicted her forthcoming success after publishing La plaça del Diamant with the following words, that proved him right: "time is a great critic. There is no other" (Montserrat Casals, Mercè Rodoreda: contra la vida, la literatura, Barcelona, Edicions 62, 1991: 275).

The resulting volume is an extensive analysis and transmission of the academic studies on this great ambassador of Catalan literature and culture. The interesting aspect of this excellent compilation of scholarly work on Rodoreda is that the emphasis constitutes a comprehensive approach to her entire artistic production, including recent editions of her earlier pre-war work and reproductions of her art...