Published in Journal of Hispanic Philology 6.1 (Autumn, 1981 [1982]), 73-74.
James R. Chatham and Carmen C. McClendon, with the collaboration of Enrique
Ruiz-Fornells and Sara Matthews Scales. Dissertations in Hispanic Languages
and Literatures. An Index of Dissertations Completed in the United States
and Canada. Volume Two: 1967-1977. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,
1981.
In 1970, Chatham and Ruiz-Fornells published
the first volume of this reference work, in which they indexed th 1783
dissertations on Hispanic languages and literatures completed between 1876
and 1966. In a review published of that volume (in Hispanófila,
No. 47 [1973], 89-90], I commended the compilers for their care and accuracy,
which led to an exceptionally useful volume. In this second volume, covering
3527 dissertations, the compilers have produced a tome equally as accurate
and, in this reviewer’s opinion, even more useful. We Hispanists can
congratulate ourselves, once we have finished thanking the compilers for
their efforts, on having a reference work available for which there is no
equivalent in most other fields.
That American dissertations are adequately
indexed in the Cumulative Dissertation Index is a common, though
unfortunately inaccurate notion. That index, which contains more errors than
its sophisticated production methods would suggest, is merely a mechanical
index of titles. Since titles are often not completely accurate descriptions
of contents (think of De la edad conflictiva, Hacia Cervantes,
or Materia Mirabile, to cite some recent books), a title index is
of limited value. Chatham and McClendon have incorporated in this work a
painstaking analytical index. “Gestures and ‘Physical’ Phrases
in Medieval Castilian Epic Poetry,” for example, in indexed under phrases,
medieval, epic, gestures, and “poetry, Spanish, early.” The compilers
have helpfully systematized the references to literary works by placing these
all under the author, with cross-references from every title.
A few more cross-references, however,
would have been useful. It is helpful to find Hazel Généreux
Carrasco’s edition of the Guitón Honofre indexed under
“picaresque,” but some neophyte might well have found it useful
for there also to be a reference at “picaresque” to the
Lazarillo. “Género chico” should have been indexed
under “zarzuela.” Many interested in chivalric literature might
look under Amadís, but few would think to look under
Cirongilio, and thus would miss Ray Green’s edition, which would
not be the case if it were found under “chivalric literature.”
Nevertheless, this index will turn up
surprises for the scholar under almost any major topic, especially since
many dissertations on topics not commonly thought to deal with Hispanic
literature “Mexico, Modern Literature, and the Search for Soul,”
“The Treatment of Music in the German Picaresque Baroque Novel”)
are included. [p. 74]
As in the previous compilation, reference
is made to the published version fo dissertations whenever this information
has come to the compilers’ attention. Since the published version of
a dissertation is almost always more useful than its original form (a fact
almost willfully ignored by University Microfilms, which sells unsuspecting
libraries packaged “sets” of dissertations), this information,
available from no other source, doubles the value of this book. A few additions:
D-10 should include reference to the editor’s critical edition, Madrid:
José Porrúa Turanzas, 1975. T-79 was published by Puvill in
1979. C-47 should include a reference to the Hispanic Seminary of Medieval
Studies’ Texts and Concordances publication, which includes,
I believe, this edition. Under M-16 a reference should be made to the
author’s El salvaje y la mitología, el arte y la
religión (Miami: Universal, 1975).
This is a volume which, like its predecessor,
belongs in any library which will be used for research on Hispanic topics.
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