Criticism

Review of The Lost Steps. Atlantic 198, No. 5 (1956): 107-8.

Questions Carpentier's belief in the virtues of primitive society, but asserts that "what is original and exciting about The Lost Steps is the way in which the action, sophisticated introspection, and powerfully evoked atmosphere are skillfully integrated."

Daruwalla, Keki N. "The Shadow of Power: Dictatorship and Human Destiny in the Novels of Marquez and Carpentier." In Garcia Marquez and Latin America, edited by Alok Bhalla, pp. 68-80. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 1987.

Compares Carpentier's depiction of dictatorship in Reasons of State to Gabriel García Márquez's approach to the same topic in Autumn of the Patriarch.

Díaz, Nancy Gray. "The Metamorphosis of Maldoror and Mackandal: Reconsidering Carpentier's Reading of Lautréamont." Modern Language Studies 21, No. 3 (Summer 1991): 48-56.

Analyzes Carpentier's critique of the work of Isidore Ducasse, the Count of Lautréamont, in light of Carpentier's own novel, El reino de este mundo.

Emery, Amy Fass. "The 'Anthropological Flaneur' in Paris: Documents, Bifur, and Collage Culture in ¡Ecué-Yamba-O!" Hispanic Journal 14, No. 2 (Fall 1993): 145-55.

Discusses Carpentier's relationship to surrealism and its use of collage.

Harss, Luis, and Dohmann, Barbara. "Alejo Carpentier, or the Eternal Return." In their Into the Mainstream: Conversations with Latin-American Writers, pp. 37-67. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Discusses Carpentier's career and the author's relationship to the Latin-American novel.

Huggan, Graham. "Anthropologists and Other Frauds." Comparative Literature 46, No. 2 (Spring 1994): 113-28.

Analyzes the portrayal of anthropology in post-colonial literature using Carpentier's Los pasos perdidos, Yambo Ouologuem's Le Devoir de violence, and Albert Wendt's Flying-Fox in a Freedom Tree.

Martin, John, and McNerney, Kathleen. "Carpentier and Jolivet: Magic Music in Los pasos perdidos." Hispanic Review 52, No. 4 (Autumn 1984): 491-98.

Asserts that "The parallels between Carpentier's narrator in Los pasos perdidos and [André] Jolivet … seem to point to Jolivet as a source for the musical theories in the novel."

Matibag, Eugenio D. "Carpentier's Consecration of Stravinsky: The Avant-Garde after the Avant-Garde." Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 5, No. 2 (1993): 299-322.

Traces the influence of Igor Stravinsky on Carpentier's work.

Menton, Seymour. "Cuba's Hegemonic Novelists." Latin American Research Review 29, No. 1 (1994): 260-66.

Compares the work of five Cuban novelists, including Carpentier's Ombras Completas.

Muller-Bergh, Klaus. "The Perception of the Marvelous: Paul Claudel and Carpentier's El arpa y la sombra." Comparative Literature Studies 24, No. 2 (1987): 165-91.

Analyzes the relationship between Carpentier's El arpa y la sombre, Paul Claudel's Le Livre de Christophe Colomb, and other historical documents which Carpentier incorporated into his novel.

Pastor, Beatriz. "Carpentier's Enlightened Revolution, Goya's Sleep of Reason." In Representing the French Revolution: Literature, Historiography, and Art, edited by James A. W. Heffernan, pp. 261-76. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College, 1992.

Discusses Carpentier's representation of the French Revolution and its effect on Latin America in his El siglo de las luces.

Shaw, Donald L. "Some Issues of Carpentier Criticism." Revista Interamericana de Bibliografia XXXV, No. 3 (1985): 297-304.

Traces the different critical schools of thought concerning Carpentier's work.

―――――― "Columbus and the Discovery in Carpentier and Posse." Romance Quarterly (Summer 1993): 181-89.

Discusses the portrayal of Christopher Columbus in Carpentier's El arpa y la sombra and Abel Posse's Los perros del paraíso.

Smith, V. A. "Carpentier's Journalism in Relation to his Works of Fiction." Crítica Hispánica VII, No. 2 (1985): 159-74.

Asserts that there is a clear relationship between the subjects Carpentier tackled in his journalism and his fiction.

Tusa, Bobs M. "A Detective Story: The Influence of Mircea Eliade on Alejo Carpentier's Los pasos perdidos." Hispanofila 30, No. 1 (September 1986): 41-65.

Analyzes the influence of the work of Mircea Eliade, historian of religions, on Carpentier's Los pasos perdidos.