LibGuides: SPAN 336: Latin American Women Writers: Books About Latin American Women Writers

Books By & About Latin American Women Writers

The library catalog is a great place to find in-depth information on Latin American women writers, including biographies and collections of critical essays. Use a simple keyword search to locate information on a particular writer or work. You can also look for specific books by title or for books by an individual author or browse the stacks by call number.

Remember that books are still the best place to go to understand a topic from beginning to end.

What else can you find on Latin American Women Writers?

If you're looking for general information on Latin American women writers or about a specific writer, you might be tempted to look only in the databases for journal articles. But books provide in-depth information and often collect a number of articles on a particular topic all in one place. Below is a sample of some of the many books in the library's collection that cover Latin American women writers.

The Cambridge Companion to the Latin American Novel
Call Number: PQ7082.N7 C272 2005
This Companion offers a broad overview of the novel's history and analyses in depth several representative works by, for example, Gabriel García Márquez, Machado de Assis, Isabel Allende and Mario Vargas Llosa.
A Dream of Light and Shadow: Portraits of Latin American Women Writers
Call Number: PQ7081.3 .D74 1995
Includes original essays on the most outstanding female figures in Latin American literature.
Knives and Angels: Women Writers in Latin America
Call Number: PQ7081.A1 K55 1990
This book offers insights into a range of major Latin American women writers whose works are only just beginning to be known by English-speaking readers.
Passion, Memory, and Identity
Call Number: PQ7081.A1 P37 1999b
This collection of essays explores the Jewish woman's experience in Latin America and is an attempt to define the cultural experience of Jewish Latin American women writers, as well as their relationship with their various countries.
Women Writers in Twentieth-Century Spain and Spanish America
Call Number: PQ6055 .W65 1993
What emerges are the multiple subversive strategies used by women writing in Spanish and Catalan to enable self-representation and to challenge hegemonic discourse.
Women Writers of Latin America: Intimate Histories
Call Number: PQ7081 .G3613 1991
Ten of Latin America's most important women writers discuss the personal, social, and political factors that have shaped their writing careers.

Serendipity in the Stacks: Browse by Call Number

One of the best ways to discover the perfect source for your topic is to browse the library stacks by call number range. Each call number range represents a particular subject and all of the books on a particular topic will be located in the same general area on the shelves. So if you want a book on Latin American literature, go to the call number range beginning with PQ7081 to see what we have!

LC Call Number	Subject
PC 4001-4977	Spanish Language
PQ 6001-8929	Spanish Literature
PQ 7081-8560	Spanish America

What else can you find on individual writers?

If you're looking for biographies of individual writers, you might be tempted to look only in the databases for background information. But books provide substantial, in-depth information on topics that are only briefly referred to in reference sources. Below is a sample of some of the many biographies of Latin American women writers in the library's collection.

Elena Poniatowska: An Intimate Biography
Call Number: PQ7297.P63 Z8413 2007
Elena Poniatowska Amor is a passionate, socially conscious writer who is widely known in Mexico and who deserves to be better known everywhere else.
I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala
Call Number: F1465.2.Q5 M3813 1984
Rigoberta’s gift for striking expression vividly conveys both the religious and superstitious beliefs of her community and her personal response to feminist and socialist ideas.
Isabel Allende
Call Number: PQ8098.1.L54 Z72 2002
Isabel Allende is considered Latin America's most acclaimed woman writer. This book examines Allende's success in uniting quality writing with mass appeal.
Laura Esquivel's Mexican Fictions
Call Number: PQ7298.15.S638 Z76 2010
Outstanding essayists in Latin American literature and film explore Laura Esquivel's critical reputation, contextualize her work in literary movements, and consider her four novels and the film based on Like Water for Chocolate from diverse critical perspectives.

Still can't find it? Try WorldCat.

If you don't find what you need in Simmons' catalog, search WorldCat for books in other local libraries or in libraries around the world.