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Argentinian scholar and writer Enrique Anderson-Imbert is familiar to many North American students for his La Literatura de América Latina I and II, which are widely used in college Spanish courses. But Anderson-Imbert is also a noted creative writer, whose use of "magical realism" helped pave the way for such writers as Borges, Cortázar, Sábato, and Ocampo. In this anthology, Carleton Vail and Pamela Edwards-Mondragón have chosen stories from the period 1965 to 1985 to introduce English-speaking readers to the creative work of Enrique Anderson-Imbert. Representative stories from the collections The Cheshire Cat, The Swindler Retires, Madness Plays at Chess, Klein's Bottle, Two Women and One Julián, and The Size of the Witches illustrate Anderson-Imbert's unique style and world view. Many are "short short" stories, which Anderson-Imbert calls casos (instances). The range of subjects and points of view varies widely, challenging such "realities" as time and space, right and wrong, science and religion. In a prologue, Anderson-Imbert tells an imaginary reader, "Each one of my stories is a closed entity, brief because it has caught a single spasm of life in a single leap of fantasy. Only a reading of all my stories will reveal my world-view." The reader asks, "And are you sure that it is worth the trouble?" Anderson-Imbert replies, "No." The unexpected, ironic ending is one of the great pleasures of reading Enrique Anderson-Imbert.
List of contents
- Introduction by Ester de Izaguirre
- Selections from The Cheshire Cat (1965)
- Prologue
- Twelve Notes
- The Pomegranate
- The Sun
- Spiral
- Heroes
- Theologies and Demonologies
- The Prisoner
- Antonius
- The Knife
- Nature
- Intelligence
- The Future
- Orpheus and Eurydice
- The Moon
- Instantaneous
- Narcissus
- The Rival
- Danse Macabre
- Bestiary
- Patterns of the Possible
- Fame
- The Doorman
- For Eternity
- Time
- Gods
- The Frightened Priest
- A Puzzle of Possibilities
- Dreams
- The Evil Eye
- The Big Head
- Selections from The Swindler Retires (1969)
- Prologue
- Frankly, No
- The Stone
- The Confession
- My Shadow
- The Pruning
- Jealousy
- The Writer and His Inkwell
- Soledad
- I’ll Teach Her a Lesson
- The Complaint
- The Girlfriend
- The Kingdom Bewitched
- Selections from Madness Plays at Chess (1971)
- Prologue
- North Wind
- Anonymous Manuscript concerning a Sad Waltz
- Ovid Told It Differently
- Murder
- Glacier
- Madness Plays at Chess
- Selections from Klein’s Bottle (1971)
- Esteco: Submerged City
- Eyes (Mine, Peering Up from the Cellar)
- The Gold Doubloon
- Bats
- The Eyes of the Dragon
- William Faulkner Saw a Ghost, and Then...
- Nalé Roxlo and the Suicide of Judas
- A Famous Conversion in the XIVth Century
- Anchored in Brazil
- A Heart Outlined
- Selections from Two Women and One Julián (1982)
- Prologue
- The Fallen Hippogriff
- Two Women and One Julián
- One X and Two Unknowns
- Forever Sweetheart
- The Alleluia of the Dying
- Juancito Chingolo
- The Last Glances
- The Palm Tree
- Selections from The Size of the Witches (1985)
- The Size of the Witches
- The Tomb
- Baby Bear
- The Wisteria
- The Innocent Child
- Lycanthropy
- Imposture
- Would to God
- A Bow Tie and a Mirror
About the author
Carleton Vail is an independent scholar and translator. Pamela Edwards-Mondragón is head of the English and Spanish departments at Converse International School of Languages in San Diego, California.
Summary
In this anthology, the translators have chosen stories from the period 1965 to 1985 to introduce English-speaking readers to the creative work of Enrique Anderson-Imbert.
