Reinventing the Americas : Comparative Studies of Literature of the United States and Spanish America

This volume provides a basis for the comparative study of literature of the United States and Spanish America. Previous studies in comparative literature have stressed the influence of Europe on the United States or on Latin America as the creator of the 'New World'. In this book, the editors argue the necessity of a comparative study of the relation between literatures of North, Central, and South America. The first part looks at literature and the historical imagination; the second section focuses on the voice and vision of women; and the final essays are devoted to perspectives on literary criticism. Together the essays discuss the work of prominent Spanish American novelists such as Pablo Armando Fernandez, Luisa Valensuela, Edmundo Desnoes, Neruda, Paz and Borges as well as writers from the United States including Melville, Whitman, William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens.