Earl E. Fitz – författare

In this survey of Central and South American literature, Earl E. Fitz provides the first book in English to analyze the Portuguese- and Spanish-language American canons in conjunction, uncovering valuable insights about both. Fitz works by comparisons and contrasts: the political and cultural situation at the end of the fifteenth century in Spain and Portugal; the indigenous American cultures encountered by the Spanish and Portuguese and their legacy of influence; the documented discoveries of Colón and Caminha; the colonial poetry of Mexico’s Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Brazil’s Gregório de Matos; culminating in a meticulous evaluation of the poetry of Nicaragua’s Rubén Darío and the prose fiction of Brazil’s Machado de Assis. Fitz, an award-winning scholar of comparative literature, contends that at the end of the nineteenth century, Latin America produced two great literary revolutions, both unique in the western hemisphere, and best understood together.

This book offers a systematic and comparative history of the evolution of literature in the Americas, from the beginning to the present day. It begins with an introduction that assesses the development of the field and then proceeds to a chapter on the literature of pre-Columbian and indigenous America. It then moves forward chronologically, from the arrival of the Europeans (beginning in 1492) to the year 2026. Including indigenous literature, the other American literatures represented in the book are those of Canada (both Francophone and Anglophone), the United States, the Caribbean (francophone and Anglophone), Spanish America, and Brazil. Not every book ever written in the Americas is included, of course; only those that, in the author’s estimation, offer some valid point of comparison with other American literary cultures. These points of comparison include issues of theme, genre, literary periods, literature and other disciplines, such as history, art, music, or politics, cases of influence and reception, and translation. The book’s emphasis is on viewing American literature from a hemispheric and comparative lens.

This book offers a systematic and comparative history of the evolution of literature in the Americas, from the beginning to the present day. It begins with an introduction that assesses the development of the field and then proceeds to a chapter on the literature of pre-Columbian and indigenous America. It then moves forward chronologically, from the arrival of the Europeans (beginning in 1492) to the year 2026. Including indigenous literature, the other American literatures represented in the book are those of Canada (both Francophone and Anglophone), the United States, the Caribbean (francophone and Anglophone), Spanish America, and Brazil. Not every book ever written in the Americas is included, of course; only those that, in the author’s estimation, offer some valid point of comparison with other American literary cultures. These points of comparison include issues of theme, genre, literary periods, literature and other disciplines, such as history, art, music, or politics, cases of influence and reception, and translation. The book’s emphasis is on viewing American literature from a hemispheric and comparative lens.