This book is for scholars and students of Latin American and Caribbean literature, and for a general audience familiar with the major novels of Alejo Carpentier. It contributes new perspectives on the marvelous real, magic realism, the Baroque, the international avant-garde, the Afro-Cuban movement, and Latin American music and dance.

Alejo Carpentier in Context examines one of the greatest novelists of Latin American literature in the 20th century. The Cuban Carpentier was one of the regions firmest supporters of the Cuban Revolution yet was revealed later to have hidden important details of his biography. A polymath of encyclopedic knowledge, contributions to this book showcase his influence, not only as a novelist but also as a musicologist, writer of ballet scenarios, radio broadcaster, opera aficionado and expert in modernist architecture. This volume offers perspectives on Carpentier's concept of the marvelous real, which later morphed into magical realism, as well as on the baroque as a defining characteristic of Latin American culture. Debates focus on Carpentier's role as a public intellectual in Cuba and abroad, on new revelations about his biography and readings of his major novels, introducing ecocritical perspectives, theories of intermediality and recent philosophies of history.