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, 88. 1, 1993 345attention. They deaerve a much. The book comes with a useful list of %vorltsiUbi in English.

MAKY AND WESTFIEU) CotXECE, LONDON CATHEMNE DAVIES

Approaches to TeocMag Garde Marqtui's 'One Hmdrtd Years o/Selitudf'. A. by M A RELENA DEVALORS and MAMO J. VALOIS. (Approaches to Teaching WorldLiterature, 31) New York: Modem Language .^sso^iatkm of .\merica. 1990.x+156pp. $34(paperboundSig).

Twelve separate approaches to Ome Hundred Years o/Soluude arc brought together ithis volume whose primaurv' value ispedagogical, .\ccompanied by a setof materialsthat pixwide pertinent bibliographical infonnation. (he twelve approaches describedifferent contexts within which Marquez's novel may be studied (comparativeliterature courses, women's studies courses. Latin-American literature courses, andsoon) and identify different interpreutive approaches fkjm perspectives of ideology,history, phenomenology', narratology, and so forth. Varv ing in length between eightand twelve pages, the essays typically mark oa( an area for study and rehearse anoudine argument with illustrations from the text of One Hundrtd Years of Solitude.Without laying claim to being exhaustive, each essay adumbrates afull treatment ofiu subject, providing pointers andreferences that may beexploited by readers. Thevolume isedited to a nigh standard andfurnished with an up-to-date bibliographywhose bias ismainly North American andSpanish American.WADHAM COLLEGE. OXFORD ROBIN W. FIDDIAN

LaparodiaenlanuevaHovelahispatuMtmencana. By ELiaiCTASKi^DOWSKA. Amsterdamand Philadelphia: Benjamins. 1991. xix +219pp.The stated purpose of this book is to study the usr of parody in theSpanish-American novel from i960 to 1985 through the works of selected authors who. forone reason or another, have not attracted a gTeat deal of attrntion from critics.Chapter i sketches the evolution of the term *parody' from its inception to thrpostmodern conception. The theoretical base for parody is largely drawn from theRussian formalists, Shklovski. Tinianov, and Bakhtin, as well as from the writings ofLinda Hutcheon. The parodic discourse isdefined asan inversion ofthr generaldirection ofthe text being parodied, the pre-text, whereby parody tries to subven thediscourse ofthe original text. The author sees in the novels written between 1960 and1985 thedevelopment ofa counter discourse tothe generation of the Boom.Having sketched the theory and iu historical background in Chapter 1, theauthormoves on to show differing manifestations of parody through the analysis oftwenty-five novels. Chapter a, forexample, has as iu heading 'La parodia historicarevisitada: parodia y reescritura'. Here the function of the discourse within the novelIS seen as one of questioning the historical discourse, arewriting of history whoepurpose becomes that of'contesur con la verdad a las mentiras' (p. 39). Hence,parody fulfils the role ofvindicating the historical past. As theauthor expresses it:La parodia es un vehiculo ideologicamente signifkativo, que bien puede scrempteado para recvaluar el pasado y entablar una polemica reactualizadora conditcursot preexiuentes' (p. 34).Chapter 3 , 'Ethos ludens y la parodia toul', deals with self-reflexive or narcissistic

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246 Reviewsthe Boom generation and ai a way to renovate the novel. The intcrtextual nature oft>arody allows it to assume the contradictory quality of breaking with the past whikbeing a continuation of it 'continuidad y ruptura' (p. 193).Chapter 5 deal* with the detective novel. Here the role of parody is the trans-gresiion o fth e d etective-story formu la. Parody is used to suhvert the fortnula. .\i theauthor states:Si volvemot aquJ a U difrrenciacion rntre la formula policial y sus reclabomcione* parodicas.podcmot coDCluu' lo tiguienie: mieniraii que las novelas policiales strict* son ssnciooan lodrieadn v cumplen ron lo citKrado, las novriai de lbargurnxoitia. GiardincUi y Taibo irfundan rn la duda y tn la ambiijfuedad, detartirulan paso a pa*o nuesnas pm uposicionrs yreluerzan la sanCT6n de la incertidumbre v del caoi del hotnbrr modemo. (p. 133)In other wo rds , the reader is faced w ith the inversion of the know n formula. T h e finalchapter, 'La escritura femenina', analyses the female discourse through Hagiograjiade narcua la bella by Mireya Robles, La casa de les espiritus hy Isahel Allende, and Cen la guerra by Luisa Valenzucla. The author shows how the female discourse is inessence a 'contratexto' (p. 154). Parody is used by female writers to subvert thedominating male discourse.In conclusion, the principal thrusc ofthe book is that parody may make use ofirony, satire, demythification, and so on, but that its main purpose is that ofproducing a counter discourse, one that emerges iti opposition to the generaldirection of the original text. All in all, this is a good book. The author gives anexcellent account ofthe role thai parody plays in the postmodern narrative and inthe post-B

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