In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Gran diccionario de autores latinoamericanos de literatura infantil y juvenil [Big encyclopedia of Latin American children’s literature authors], and: Historia de la literatura infantil en América Latina [A History of children’s literature in Latin America]
  • Jochen Weber

Jaime García Padrino (Ed) Gran diccionario de autores latinoamericanos de literatura infantil y juvenil [Big encyclopedia of Latin American children’s literature authors] Madrid: Fundación SM 2010 959pp ISBN 9789587053364

Manuel Peña Muñoz Historia de la literatura infantil en América Latina [A History of children’s literature in Latin America] Madrid: Fundación SM 2009 820pp ISBN 9789587053371 [End Page 48]

Over the last decades, a number of very useful publications have appeared about children’s literature in Latin American countries. What was still missing, however, was a synthesis spanning the whole continent and the development of children’s literature from its beginnings to the present. These two volumes cannot close that gap completely, but they must be considered seminal milestones and an indispensable reference for anybody working on Latin American children’s literature. Both of them were published on the occasion of an international conference on Latin American children’s literature that took place in Santiago de Chile in February 2010 and united many experts from Latin America and Spain.

The well-structured Gran diccionario de autores latinoamericanos de literatura infantil y juvenil edited by the Spanish children’s book scholar Jaime García Padrino consists of bio-bibliographic entries on about eight hundred mostly contemporary authors from the Hispano-American countries and Brazil. The profiles were written by twenty renowned experts in the field. Covering the period from 1850 to the present day, the entries are listed in alphabetical order, offering important basic information about authors and their work. Each entry includes a biographical note, short annotations of the principal works, a bibliography of further titles and secondary literature, as well as a brief statement situating the author within the children’s literature of his or her country and within the larger Latin American context.


Click for larger view
View full resolution

In contrast to the Diccionario with its generic focus on individual authors, the Historia de la literatura infantil en América Latina by the Chilean children’s book expert and author Manuel Peña Muñoz presents a synthetic overview of the development of children’s literature in the various Latin American countries. On the one hand, this is convincing because some of the developments are indeed particular to individual countries and because the different literary traditions have less in common than one may assume. On the other hand, a broader perspective encompassing the whole continent and allowing for comparison between the different countries would surely have been enlightening.


Click for larger view
View full resolution

Peña Muñoz describes children’s literature in Latin America from its beginnings, including genres such as children’s poetry, children’s drama, fairytales, and he presents authors he considers to be representative of their countries. In this last respect, the Historia overlaps markedly with the Diccionario, creating redundancies if one looks at the two volumes as complementary works. It might have been more productive to shift the focus to literary themes, literary-sociological facets, or fields such as the book market or children’s literature scholarship. An index would also have been useful. By its very scope, however, the Historia remains an impressive endeavor.

...

pdf

Share