SPANISH-AMERICAN LITERATURE: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

M. Hernandez Sanchez-Barba, Historia y literatura hispano americana (1492-1820), Valencia, Gastalia, 1978, 349 pp., takes an hispanista standpoint and seeks to document the intellectual response to the New World, covering conquistadors and mis sionaries, a second generation of interpreters (Garcilaso, Ercilla and Acosta), the baroque criollo spirit of the 17th century and the critical rationalism of the 18th century. The XVIICongreso del Institute International de Literatura Iberoamericana, 3 vols, M, Cultura Hispanica, 1978, 1608 pp., contains in vol. 1 a feast of articles on the baroque and in vol. 3 contributions on clo real maravilloso' and cel tiempo' of the chroniclers. Textos de cronistas de Indiasy poemas pre-colombinos, ed. R. Godoy and A. Olmo, M, Ed. Nacional, 1979, 346 pp., offers uncom mented texts which portray aspects of the world of the Aztecs, Mayas and Incas seen through Spanish and Indian eyes. J. B. Avalle-Arce, Dintorno de una ipoca dorada, M, Porriia, 1978, xii + 440 pp., is a useful collection of previously published articles relating to the period 1514-1630, and includes major figures such as Garcilaso el Inca, Fernandez de Oviedo, Sor Juana and Ercilla. The lesser known but valuable work of Maria R. Lida de Malkiel in the field of colonial literature is the subject of Y. MalkiePs contribution to Homenaje a Don Agapito Rey, Bloomington, Indiana U.P., 357-73.