FASZER-MCMAHON, DEBRA. Cultural Encounters in Contemporary Spain: The Poetry of Clara Janes. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 2010. 262 pp.Clara Janes's (Barcelona, 1940) principal genre is poetry but she has also published memoirs, novels, short stories, theater, and critical essays. For her extensive translation work she was awarded the National Prize of Translation in 1997. Janes's creative independence has made it difficult for literary critics and historians to identify her as belonging to one of the dominant tendencies in the late-twentiethcentury poetry of Spain. She appears to have much in common with the novisimos - date of birth, for one, and a preference for certain aspects of culturalismo - but has not been included in that group. Adherence to a unique aesthetic quest has also marginalized her from mainstream anthologies.In this context of relative critical abandon, Debra Faszer-McMahon's study is most welcome. Any book-length study would help draw attention to this remarkable poet, but Cultural Encounters is not just "any" study, but an outstanding piece of scholarship that convincingly substantiates the premise that Janes's poetry is not only fine-tuned aesthetically but also a stellar example of literary-ethical discourse. The author grounds her argument in Dereck Attridge's creative model of reading in which the apprehension of meanings new to readers establishes a condition of creative reception that leads to embracing what lies beyond the self. Gabriele Schwab's writings also contribute to the theoretical framework of the study, and there are also substantial references to foundational theorists such as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Emmanuel Levinas, to name a few.The author maintains that Janes offers a vision of knowing and being that does not categorize or limit self and other. A turn toward the apophatic language of mystical poetry, particularly Islamic, enables the poet to move away from objectification through a poetic process of emptying the self of conventional limitations and of creating zones of uncertainty in which the divisions of subject-object and self-other dissolve. Faszer-McMahon also affirms that in Janes's oeuvre, mystical language becomes a form of pointing to the problem of signs. Another characteristic that she underscores is the link between Janes's poetry and constructions of Spanish identity. The poet's intent to blur boundaries between Eastern and Western cultures is read both in the context of the past - the historical presence of Islam in Spain - and in the present - the otherness of Muslims as immigrants in Spain and other European Union countries. The term "encounters" in the book's title highlights the cultural mediation of Janes's poetry. "Encounter" implies a degree of unpredictability and loss of control on coming upon otherness from beyond the bounds of one's own ideoculture. The experience demands some kind of exchange and dialogue locating the self in a zone of constant transformation.The poetic language and textual arrangements that enable the poet to communicate the evolving nature of a self open to reformulation in contact with otherness is the focus of the four core chapters of the monograph, each of which examines a specific book: Kampa (1968), Divan del opalo de fuego (1996), Los secretos del bosque (2002) and Espacios translucidos (2007). The well-founded selection allows for indepth analyses while at the same time offering a clear delineation of the chronological development and subtle nuances of Janes's evolving aesthetic of being and otherness.Chapter I, "Bridging the Island of the Self: Cultural Contact in the Music of Kampa," studies the mystical language and unconventional musical mode found in Kampa. The former is manifest in a quest for mystical union. When Janes encountered the poetry of the Czech writer Vladimir Holan she was so transformed that in response she wrote Kampa. The portrayal of the night quest, with its mystical connotations, conveys an experience that moves beyond logical and physical barriers, and there is an emphasis on the transformative possibilities of the union. …