Contemporary Spanish Women's Narrative and the Publishing Industry (review)

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 257 Although contemporary artists and trends such asfilin and timba axe included, the AfroCuban rap scene is not well represented. A reader searching for information on the celebrated hip hop group Orishas will not find it, nor any of the performers associated with the group. Perhaps such an omission reflects the defacto marginalization of rap cubano noted by London journalist and co-author oÃ- Afro-Cuban Voices on Race and Identity in Contemporary Cuba, Pedro Pérez Sarduy. Cuba's major recording label, EGREM (Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales) began discussing releasing a compilation of Cuban rap in the 1990s, but that project has not yet materialized . It is also somewhat surprising that while Orovio has included entries on important concert halls and performance venues, he has not provided information on the recording industry in Cuba. The influential Havana-based EGREM certainly merits an entry of its own for its important contributions to the development and trajectory of Cuban music. Criteria for inclusion in Cuban Music from A to Z understandably centered on items of proven significance, and with this in mind, users will find that Orovio and the editorial team for this edition have admirably documented the richness and transcendent power of Cuban music. Janer Sturman The University of Arizona Contemporary Spanish Women's Narrative and the Publishing Industry University of Illinois Press, 2003 By Christine Henseler As a result of Spain's literary boom that began in the late twentieth century, the country's publishing industry is one of the largest in the world. Yet some would argue that it is in crisis, rocked by pressures of globalization, new technology , increased competition, and political wrangling. In this changing venue, authors and readers find their production and consumption dictated by advertising through television and radio promotion. For Spanish novelist Rosa Montero, all this "noise in the market" can be distracting and destructive to the literary enterprise : "The market contaminates the relationship berween author and reader and the relationship between author and text" (2). In Contemporary Spanish Women's Narrative and the Publishing Industry, Christine Henseler lucidly analyzes the unique situation of contemporary Spanish female writers whose sexuality brings them recognition as well as discrimination in a traditionally male-oriented arena. She maintains that, today, a dialectical reading of marginalized female writers vs. dominant male writers is counterproductive to the advancement of women authors, for the dominant power of the market institutions provides a space for literature written by women to be published. Indeed, she argues, by joining the market system women can alter the structure from within. Henseler's book begins wirh an introduction that presents an overview of rhe publishing predicamenrs and market influences on major female writers from Pardo Bazán to the present, followed by six chapters that examine the work of some of the most distinguished and successful female writers in contemporary Spain. She ends with a chapter that presents numerous female writers' personal experiences wirh the publishing industry, followed by a brief conclusion. Henseler's analysis of the impact of literary market forces on specific novels juxtaposes visual elements of book covers and advertisements with verbal depictions of the female body within the texts "to highlight the seductive power of the female image in present-day marketing philosophies" (18) and in literature. She displays her finest critical dexterity in the first chapter, "Vision Over Truth: El sueño de Venecia by Paloma DÃ-az-Mas," where she examines the interplay between interpretations of the literary text, the visual image, and external marketing influences. She shows how a painting of a beautiful courtesan, which serves as the central axis 258 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies of all the sub-plots in the novel, is distorted as it is reduced to language but ultimately destabilizes textual veracity and "positions the readers within a realm dominated by the image" (25). Then, in "The Arr of Seduction: Urraca by Lourdes Ortiz," Henseler demonstrates how the heroine ofthis historiographie fiction strives to reinsert her elided figure into history by selling readers on the desirability of her erotically and politically charged body, which occupies rhe center of her own story. Chapter 3...