Texts 2023

Most of these texts should be available at the UBC bookstore, or you can order them from Pulp Fiction, “Vancouver’s legendary independent bookstore,” which may well be able to offer them at a lower price, though they may need up to two weeks to get the books in. (Where I know the Pulp Fiction price, I indicate that below.)

You will not be required to read all these books, so do not buy them before the first day of class. Please read this short guide to the texts, which should help you choose your own adventure by deciding which you want to read.

Below, I am also providing links to online versions of some, if not all, of the texts. But my very strong suggestion is that you buy the physical books rather than relying on digital versions.

  • Azuela, Mariano. The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution. Trans. Sergio Waisman. London: Penguin, 2008.
  • Bolaño, Roberto. Distant Star. Trans. Chris Andrews. New York: New Directions, 2004.
  • Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings. Trans. James E. Irby et al. Ed. Donald A. Yates and James E. Irby. Revised Edition. New York: New Directions, 2007.
    • I have set this version of the text as I think it is the easiest to get hold of. NB you only need to read pages 3-105 plus “Borges and I” (246-247). If you wish, you may substitute for this, Borges, Jorge Luis. Ficciones. Ed. Anthony Kerrigan. New York: Grove, 1962. This is a collection of more or less the same stories (in different translation), but it does not have “Borges and I,” and in this case please also read “The South.” I believe that the same translation is also published by Penguin Modern Classics as Fictions. The stories can be found in yet another translation on pages 65-189 of Borges, Jorge Luis. Collected Fictions. Trans. Andrew Hurley. London: Penguin, 1999.
  • Braschi, Giannina. Yo-Yo Boing! Las Vegas, NV: AmazonCrossing, 2011.
    • There is a translation of this text: Braschi, Giannina. Yo-Yo Boing! Trans Tess O’Dwyer. Las Vegas, NV: AmazonCrossing, 2011. But I recommend that, if at all possible, you read the untranslated original, which switches between English, Spanish, and Spanglish. This code-switching is an important part of the book, and is (obviously) lost in translation. NB I also think that this text (whether the original or the translation) can only be ordered direct from Amazon.
  • Campobello, Nellie. Cartucho: Tales of the Struggle in Northern Mexico. Trans. Doris Meyer. Cartucho and My Mother’s Hands. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988. 1-89.
  • Carpentier, Alejo. The Kingdom of This World. Trans. Harriet de Onís. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
  • De la Parra, Teresa. Mama Blanca’s Memoirs. Critical Edition. Trans. Harriet de Onis, revised by Frederick Fornoff. Ed. Doris Sommer. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993.
  • García Márquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Trans. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
  • Indiana, Rita. Papi. Trans. Achy Obejas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.
  • Lemebel, Pedro. My Tender Matador. Trans. Katherine Silver. New York: Grove, 2003.
  • Lispector, Clarice. The Hour of the Star. Trans. Benjamin Moser. New York: New Directions, 2011.
  • Menchú, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. Ed. Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. Trans. Ann Wright. London: Verso, 1984.
    • This book is longer than most of those we are reading. Ideally, I would like you to read all of it, but if you want you may skip chapters 8-13 (pages 43-91), which deal in general terms with indigenous traditions in the highlands. But do be sure to read Burgos-Debray’s introduction, which is important.
  • Mistral, Gabriela. Madwomen: The Locas mujeres Poems of Gabriela Mistral. Ed. and trans. Randall Couch. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
  • Neruda, Pablo. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Trans. W. S. Merwin. London: Penguin, 2004.
  • Rivera Garza, Cristina. The Taiga Syndrome. Trans. Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana. St Louis, MO: Dorothy, 2018.
  • Rulfo, Juan. Pedro Páramo: A Novel of Mexico. Trans. Lysander Kemp. New York: Grove, 1959.
  • Schweblin, Samanta. Fever Dream. Trans. Megan McDowell. New York: Riverhead, 2017.
  • Vargas Llosa, Mario. Captain Pantoja and the Special Service. Trans. Gregory Kolovakos and Ronald Christ. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990.