Essay
Literatura hondureña contemporánea
Not translated into English
Helen Umaña · 1986
Synopsis
A collection of critical essays, written for a general readership, which devotes a chapter to each of seventeen Honduran writers, from Clementina Suárez and Roberto Sosa, the one studied at greatest length, to Pompeyo del Valle, Rigoberto Paredes, Eduardo Bähr and Julio Escoto. Poetry takes first place; for each author, the critic brings out the distinctive character of the work, its achievements and its limits.
Context
The book appeared in 1986 in Tegucigalpa, from Guaymuras, in the Lámpara series, five years after the author's return to Honduras. It opened a critical body of work continued with Ensayos de literatura hondureña, Francisco Morazán en la literatura hondureña, Panorama crítico del cuento hondureño and La novela hondureña, a survey of some hundred novelists. One review notes that only one woman, Clementina Suárez, is among the authors studied; the author would later publish Narradoras hondureñas. The book has been translated into neither French nor English.
Who it is for
To discover, through the pen of a demanding critic, the poets and prose writers who made modern Honduran literature.
Prizes and reception
A 2018 review praises a masterly but demanding prose; many regard the author as the country's greatest critic.