Augusto Roa Bastos (1917-2005), winner of the prestigious Cervantes prize, is one of the most important Latin American writers of the twentieth century. This commemorative collection consists of articles by nine scholars reflecting upon the postmodern nature of the Paraguayan author's literary production and his place in world literature. The volume includes articles on the author's screenplays, his masterpiece, the dictator novel "I The Supreme," his short stories, feminist approaches to Roa Bastos's novels, reflections on the writer's Guarani poetry, and a study of the complex, intertextual relationships between his novel "El fiscal" and his other texts.
"The essays that follow Weldt-Basson s excellent analytical presentation address the postmodern project that emerges out of Roa Bastos novels, short stories, and film scripts. As we move from one analysis to the other, we ll find, as we do when we enter Roa Bastos monumental novel Yo el Supremo (I, the Supreme), an exploration of the recesses of orality and writing, of literary devices and the complex and intricate relations between history and fiction as we are granted access to the meandering of absolute power." - Saúl Sosnowski, University of Maryland, College Park
"Weldt-Basson's Postmodernism's Role in Latin American Literature consists of essays that engage, from various critical perspectives, not only Roa Bastos most famous novels and stories, but also much of the Paraguayan author's work that has received less critical attention. Its contributions are intelligent, well written, and thoroughly documented - theoretically sophisticated enough to be of interest and use to Roa Bastos scholars while contextualized and presented in such a manner as to be accessible to advanced students." - Brent Carbajal, Western Washington University
"Weldt-Basson's Postmodernism's Role in Latin American Literature consists of essays that engage, from various critical perspectives, not only Roa Bastos most famous novels and stories, but also much of the Paraguayan author's work that has received less critical attention. Its contributions are intelligent, well written, and thoroughly documented - theoretically sophisticated enough to be of interest and use to Roa Bastos scholars while contextualized and presented in such a manner as to be accessible to advanced students." - Brent Carbajal, Western Washington University