This book reflects years of Frazier-Yoder’s deep intellectual engagement with the works of some of Latin America’s most beloved and respected writers. Her analysis of what she dubs character creation as a vehicle for “epistemological questioning and ontological disruption” allows for fresh interpretations of canonical and lesser-known texts alike. In fact, the four areas of inquiry she identifies in these twentieth-century works feel especially relevant for twenty-first-century readers and scholars of Spanish-language literature.
— Andrea M. Smith, Shenandoah University
Creators and Created Beings in Twentieth-Century Latin American Fiction: Creating Questions is an excellent contribution to Latin American studies. It adds fascinating new perspectives to readings of widely recognized literary masterpieces by a group of authors that includes Roberto Arlt, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, María Luisa Bombal, Carlos Fuentes, Horacio Quiroga, and Juan Carlos Onetti, among others. Focusing on early- to mid-twentieth-century fiction, Amy Frazier-Yoder examines how writers create authorial figures who, in turn, become authors themselves. In elucidating the workings of creators of created beings, the analyses are particularly in tune with our contemporary world’s technical and scientific developments, the presence of avatars, gender issues, and lovers’ qualms. Although this study relies on fiction from Mexico to Southern Cone countries, the book is a very well-informed examination of the intellectual, artistic, and scientific background of the times, greatly enhancing the depth of the readings. These intelligent and sophisticated analyses undoubtedly expand previous interpretations. After reading this investigation, my appreciation of classics such as Fuentes’ Aura or Bombal’s La última niebla has certainly increased.
— María-Inés Lagos, professor emerita, University of Virginia
This is a work of comparative literature. Frazier-Yoder explores works of prose, poetry, and drama in texts from the Latin American canon from the early to the mid-20th century. The author analyzes works by Roberto Artl, Julio Cortazar, Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Carlos Onetti, Carlos Fuentes, Juan José Arreola, Horacio Quiroga, Eduardo Ladislao Holmberg, Pedro Angelici, Clemente Palma, Adolfo Bioy Casares, and María Luisa Bombal. The book aims to answer epistemological and ontological questions about characters who are presented by the narrators as if they have a certain degree of independence from their creators. This analysis investigates and emphasizes the affinity between the works of the authors studied. Frazier-Yoder builds on the theories of Jacques Lacan, Robert Spiers, Patricia Waugh, and Michel Foucault, among others, to study aspects of metafiction, identity, gender, and sexual desire. The book is particularly useful for those interested in comparative literature within the Latin American canon. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.
— Choice Reviews