The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Novel: From 1600 to the Present (review)

248 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies explicit allusive network" (14-15). His impressive romp across two millennia of epic attests to the continued vitality oÃ- literary studies. Further , rhe ideological functioning of the poems remains central to his readings. Despite her own positioning of herself, I would argue rhat Simerka is actually closer methodologically to Quint than to the cultural materialism she espouses . In sum, Discourses of Empire should occupy a prominent place in the growing body of work that looks at early modern Spanish literary production in relation to outward colonial expansion and its internal consequences. Less sophisticated theoretically than Barbara Fuchs' Mimesis and Empire, with which it will inevitably be compared, it nonetheless provides accessible readings to lesser-known works, and could be especially helpful for selecting and preparing material for courses concerning literature and politics in the Golden Age. Instead of the misleading theoretical introduction, I recommend reading the concluding chapter firsr. Besides being one of the best chapters, it gives a much clearer idea of what the book is about. The historical survey in Chapter Two is of interest mainly for readers unfamiliar with the sixteenth-century Spanish debates over imperial ideology that Pagden has studied. William Childers Brooklyn College, CUNY The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Novel: From 1600 to the Present Cambridge University Press, 2003 Edited by Harriet Turner and Adelaida López de MartÃ-nez Dictionaries and histories of literature generally cover large segments of cultural terrain . Whether providing thumbnail sketches of authors and works commonly found in dictionaries , or proposing grander narratives of development that mark literary history, these reference works are usable (and are used) by students and scholars seeking a variety of information: from the date of publication of a work or the birthplace of an author, to explanations rooted in social, political, and artistic contexts that trace cause and effect or define literary periods and aesthetic movements. The intended use of The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Novel is harder to pin down. On the one hand, the abstract offered at the beginning claims that the book "presents the development of the modern Spanish novel from 1600 to the presenr"—a claim that hints at literary history shaped by a commitment to progression. On the other hand, the abstract terms the book a "companionable survey," suggesting a representative account of significant works and ideas, but without pretensions of completeness. Hence a sense of in-berweenness persists concerning the usage of The Companion , which is composed of sixteen essays by accomplished scholars whose projecr is to afford substance and summary ro four centuries of the Spanish novel. The whole that derives from rhe individual parts of The Companion is bound by what the editors assert is the "fundamental element" of the Spanish novel: "the quixotic or whar Nabokov has called 'play in collusion with reality '" (1). Certainly, there is much about the Spanish novel that flows from the quixotic and Cervantine traditions: irony, self-referentiality, parody, and intertextuality immediarely come to mind. But the line of continuity envisioned by the editors grows blurred by time and the accretion of difference in narrative fiction as generations of authors have both embraced and resisted the past in search of their own forms of innovation. Only two of the essays in the book actually mention the quixotic (one on Cervantes himself and the other on the realist novel of the nineteenth century). In contrast, in a more fruitful effort to secure unity for the book, the editors emphasize self-reflexivity, time, and cultural context as critical markers for the essays, and these elements gain resonance throughout the volume. Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 249 While the sum of the book seems less useful than the individual parts, the parts themselves most often are superb. The volume is divided into three sections ("Since Cervantes;" "The nineteenth century;" "The twentieth century"), with essays in each of the sections offering either a historical overview or thematic approach to the novel. Equally important , the essays are framed by sound theoretical perspectives that give them standing as highly usable and engaging pieces of literary criticism beyond the companion status that they bear through editorial intention. Several...