The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature is by far the most comprehensive work of its kind ever written. Its three volumes cover the whole sweep of Latin American literature (including Brazilian) from pre-Columbian times to the present, and contain chapters on Latin American writing in the USA. Over forty specialists in North America, Latin America and Britain have contributed to what is not only the most reliable, up-to-date, and convenient reference work on its subject, but also a set of books containing innovative approaches and fresh research that will expand and animate the field for years to come. The History is unique in its thorough coverage of previously neglected areas, in its detailed discussion of countless writers in various genres, and in its inclusion of extensive annotated bibliographies. Volume 1 begins with pre-Columbian traditions and their first contact with European culture, continuing through to the end of the nineteenth century. New World historiography, epic poetry, theatre, the novel, and the essay form are among the areas covered in this comprehensive and authoritative treatment.

Table of Contents:
List of contributors; General preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction to Volume 1; 1. A brief history of the history of Spanish American literature Roberto González Echevarría; 2. Cultures in contact: Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the European written tradition Rolena Adorno; 3. The first fifty years of Hispanic New World historiography: the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America Stephanie Merrim; 4. Historians of the conquest and colonisation of the New World: 1550–1620 Kathleen Ross; 5. Historians of the colonial period: 1620–1700 David H. Bost; 6. Colonial lyric; 7. Epic poetry Margareta Pena; 8. Spanish American theatre of the colonial period Roberto González Echevarría; 9. Viceregal culture Asunción Lavrin; 10. The eighteenth century: narrative forms, scholarship, and learning Karen Stolley; 11. Lyric poetry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Andrew Bush; 12. Spanish American theatre of the eighteenth century Frederick Luciani; 13. The nineteenth-century Spanish American novel Antonio Benítez Rojo; 14. The brief narrative in Spanish America: 1835–1915 Enrique Pupo-Walker; 15. The Spanish American theatre of the nineteenth century Frank Dauster; 16. The essay in Spanish South America: 1800 to Modernismo Nicolas Shumway; 17. The essay of nineteenth-century Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean Martin S. Stabb; 18. The gaucho genre Josefina Lúdmer; Index.