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Overview
This book is an extension of Dr. Spooner's previous work on the interplay of insect processes and human culture as discussed in The Metaphysics of Insect Life (ISP, 1995). It continues the application of the literary, philosophical, and scientific methods employed there to the main currents in the evolution of modern Hispanic literature. On one level, it is part of the new cultural-ecological criticism. Assessing the incursion of South American rainforest ecology into the poetry of Silva, Dario and later Eguren, this study considers their impact on Rueda, Aleixandre, Jimenez, Lorca, and Valente, among others, balancing this with a recognition of Spain's indigenous post-romantic modernism. Then, while taking account of the insects in Juan Goytisolo's novels, Spooner will throw more light on the books of Marquez, Cortazar and Fuentes, where the striking of the medieval across the modern is interpreted as related to the metamorphoses of insects, and indeed the processes of literary development itself. The book concludes with a consideration of the metaphysical and scientific implications of this analysis.
Synopsis
This book is an extension of Dr. Spooner's previous work on the interplay of insect processes and human culture as discussed in The Metaphysics of Insect Life (ISP, 1995). It continues the application of the literary, philosophical, and scientific methods employed there to the main currents in the evolution of modern Hispanic literature.
Booknews
Spooner notes that, aside from humans, most living organisms on earth achieve maturation through metamorphosis. In this text he extends the analyses begun in a previous work, , that great works of music and literature represent a human attempt to experience something akin to metamorphosis. He hopes to show "that the history of the insect in Spanish and Spanish-American literature is a latent pivot upon which the inextricability of nature and the written word turns with transformatory power." In this analysis, he considers works by Rueda, Lorca, Damaso Alonso, Aleixandre, Antonio Machado, Cernuda, Salinas, Neruda, Paz, Eguren, Agustini and Carrera Andrade. The author's credentials are not stated. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)