Do the Americas Have a Common Literary History?

This book is based on the assumption that the problem of American literatures written in European languages is not the burden of Europe but the fact that they are second or further literatures written in the same language as older ones that happen to be located in Europe. The papers collected here address the following questions: Is it possible for two or more distinct literatures to coexist in the same language? If the distinction is more than merely ideological and convenient, what are the differences, and how did they come about? Is it reasonable to assume that differentiation followed similar patterns in the various literatures? The volume combines textual and theoretical studies of programmatic writings, literary works, and literary histories in English, French, and Spanish.

The Editors: Annette Paatz specialized in Spanish and Latin American literature at the University of Göttingen. Paatz’s interests include nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American and Spanish prose narratives, the processes of cultural transfer between France and Latin America, comparative cultural and media history, and gender studies. Barbara Buchenau specialized in American literature and culture at the University of Göttingen. Buchenau has published on nineteenth-century historical fiction in the Americas and is co-editor, with Marietta Messmer, of Intercultural Negotiations in the Americas and Beyond. Her research interests include various processes of transatlantic cultural transfer and transformation, the literary marketplace in North America, and the emergence of Canadian literature as a cultural institution.