Encyclopedias, Dictionaries & Handbooks

Dictionaries

Galimberti, Jarman B. et al., eds. Oxford Spanish Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Contains Spanish-English and English-Spanish components. The most current edition is kept in the Reference Collection on the main floor of the E.J. Pratt Library and it does not circulate. However, older editions are moved to the stacks, and those can be borrowed.

Harvell, Tony A. Latin American Dramatists since 1945. Praeger, 2003.

Compiles and locates biographical and bibliographical information of over 700 prominent Latin American dramatists of the late twentieth century and their plays in twenty different countries, and it lists over 7,000 plays arranged by country and by author. Author biographies consist of year and place of birth, education, careers, other literary genres, and awards and prizes.

Baldick, Chris. Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Provides clear and concise definitions of the most troublesome literary terms, from abjection to zeugma. It is an essential reference tool for students of literature in any language. Now expanded and in its fourth edition, it includes increased coverage of new terms from modern critical and theoretical movements, such as feminism, schools of American poetry, Spanish verse forms, life writing, and crime fiction.

Also available online.

Encyclopedias

Smith, Verity, ed. Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature. Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.

A comprehensive guide to the authors, works, and topics crucial to the literature of Central and South America and the Caribbean, it includes some 500 entries written by experts in the field of Latin American studies. The encyclopedia encompasses the range and history of literature in the Latin American countries.

In addition to presenting and illuminating the traditional canon, the volume also stresses the contribution made by women authors and by contemporary writers.

Also available online.

Balderston, Daniel, and Mike Gonzalez, eds. Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900–2003. Routledge, 2004.

Includes entries on all aspects of literature including authors, critics, major works, magazines, genres, schools and movements in these regions from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day.

Pérez, Janet, and Maureen Ihrie, eds. The Feminist Encyclopedia of Spanish Literature. Greenwood Press, 2002.

This reference looks at the literature of Spain from the perspective of women’s studies. Though the volume focuses on the literature of Spain written in Castilian, it also includes survey entries on the present state of women’s literature in Catalan, Galician, and Basque. The encyclopedia includes entries for numerous topics related to Spanish literature, including: literary periods and genres, significant characters and character types, major authors and works, and various specialized topics (such as depictions of sexuality and lesbianism).

Hispanic Writers: A Selection of Sketches from Contemporary Authors. 2nd. ed. Gale Group, 1999.

Provides personal, career and publication information on more than 400 20th-century Hispanic American authors from Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking countries of South and Central America.

Ihrie, Maureen, and Salvador A. Oropesa, eds. World Literature in Spanish: An Encyclopedia ABC-CLIO, 2011.

Contains entries on both major and minor authors, themes, genres, and topics of Spanish literature from the Middle Ages to the present day, with coverage of the varied countries, ethnicities, time periods, literary movements, and genres of these writings.