Unraveling the Real

Cynthia Duncan is Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at University of Washington Tacoma.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction. The Fantastic as a Literary Genre1 Modernist Short Stories and the Fantastic2 The Fantastic as an Interrogation of Literary Practices3 Reclaiming History: Fantastic Journeys in Time and Space4 Psychoanalytic Readings of the Fantastic5 The Fantastic and the Conventions of Gothic Romance6 Women Writers of the Fantastic7 Cinematic Encounters with the FantasticConclusion. Fantastic Literature in Spanish America in the Twenty-First CenturyNotesBibliographyIndex

"Unraveling the Real offers a welcome update to the existing criticism on the genre and some useful speculation as to its future... [T]he literature covered is substantial, and all major critical perspectives are well represented. This is a highly readable and useful book for students, scholars, and others interested in the fantastic literature of Latin America." The Americas, October 2012 "Unraveling the Real is a very readable, succinct introduction to the topic of the fantastic and its primary critics. Duncan presents a review of the texts on the fantastic and applies this trace to individual authors and film directors, narrative strategies, psychological processes and gender issues. Her introduction is effective in establishing the borders and transgressions of the fantastic, and she is not afraid of moving from the literature of and on the fantastic to the questioning of cultural constructs. Her objective to emphasize the analysis of social criticism is an effective approach." Enrique Sacerio-Gari, Bryn Mawr College