This volume offers a critical study of a representative selection of Latin American women writers who have made major contributions to all literary genres and represent a wide range of literary
perspectives and styles. Many of these women have attained the highest literary honours: Gabriela Mistral won the Nobel Prize in 1945; Clarice Lispector attracted the critical attention of
theorists working mainly outside the Hispanic area; others have made such telling contributions to particular strands of literature that their names are immediately evocative of specific
currents or styles. Elena Poniatowska is associated with testimonial writing; Isabel Allende and Laura Esquivel are known for the magical realism of their texts; others, such as Juana de
Ibarbourou and Laura Restrepo remain relatively unknown despite their contributions to erotic poetry and to postcolonial prose fiction respectively. The distinctiveness of this volume lies in
its attention to writers from widely differing historical and social contexts and to the diverse theoretical approaches adopted by the authors. Br穩gida M. Pastor teaches Latin American
literature and film at the University of Glasgow . Her publications include Fashioning Cuban Feminism and Beyond, El discurso de Gertrudis G籀mez de Avellaneda: Identidad Femenina y Otredad; and
Discursos Caribenhos: Historia, Literatura e Cinema Lloyd Hughes Davies teaches Spanish American Literature at Swansea University. His publications include Isabel Allende, La casa de los
esp穩ritus and Projections of Peronism in Argentine Autobiography, Biography and Fiction.
