Octavio Paz (b. 1914–d. 1998) ranks among the most influential Latin American poets and intellectuals of the 20th century. Fully engaged in the artistic experimentation and critical spirit of modernity, he wrote more than twenty books of poetry and as many book-length essays on such topics as eroticism, poetry, politics, history, anthropology, and visual arts. Paz examined world cultures from multiple frames of reference, including the movements of modernity and postmodernity, the tensions between poetry and history, the state of world politics, Eastern and Western thought, and Latin American struggles for independence and self-determination. The broad sweep of his worldview was shaped in part by experiences gained during decades of service with the Mexican diplomatic corps in Paris, New York, New Delhi, Tokyo, and Geneva. Recognized worldwide thanks to translations and awards, including the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature, Paz’s intellectual work engenders rich, sometimes controversial scholarship. Praised by many for his remarkable contributions, others accuse him of creating an elitist, ahistorical concept of poetry as the singular resource to overcome the failures of history. The vast scholarship examining Paz’s work focuses on his poetics and critical thought, and addresses recurring themes: biography, political controversies, and the intellectual movements of the 20th century that influenced or were influenced by him. The scope and impact of Paz’s oeuvre present a substantial challenge for this concise bibliography. The comprehensive bibliography by Hugo J. Verani, covering the period 1931–2013, provided a seminal starting point for our work (see Verani 2014, cited under Bibliographies). While that collection sought to encompass any and all works alluding to Paz, our focus here is on sources of substantive merit that advance our understanding of the author. We have sought to capture major threads of research, emphasizing works published in 2014 in honor of Paz’s centenary and those that follow to the present day. Source format was taken into account, resulting in a selection that includes mostly books (in print and online), book chapters, anthologies, biographies, and peer-reviewed journals. The core of the scholarship on Paz includes analyses of poetry and poetics, comparative studies on world cultures, critiques of modernity and postmodernity, scholarship on the visual arts, Asia and orientalism, history, and politics. By selecting these topics as the organizing concepts of the bibliography, we hope to highlight crucial background materials to explore Paz’s contributions to the landscape of literature, culture, and politics in the 20th and early 21st centuries.
What Remains to Be Discovered. Mapping the Secrets of the Universe, the Origins of Life, and the Future of the Human Race. John Maddox. New York: Free Press, 1998, 434 pp., $26.00. ISBN 0-684-82292-X.