About the Book
Ensayos sobre literatura latinoamericana by A. Torres-Rioseco brings together a series of pioneering studies that trace the formation and evolution of Latin American letters from the colonial period to the modern era. In essays that range from the theatrical experiments of indigenous Mexico to the dramatic achievements of González de Eslava, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Torres-Rioseco situates early American writing within both its Iberian heritage and its New World context. Later chapters explore the first critical defenses of Baroque poetics in the Americas—such as Espinosa Medrano’s Apologético in favor of Góngora—and follow the transformations of literary theory through modernismo and beyond. With an eye for both aesthetic detail and cultural synthesis, the author illuminates the intersections of indigenous performance, missionary didacticism, and criollo self-expression as foundational to a hemispheric literary tradition.
At once scholarly and accessible, this volume reveals how Latin American literature continually negotiated questions of influence, originality, and identity. The book links figures as diverse as Góngora, Poe, Rubén Darío, and José Asunción Silva, tracing how debates over poetic form and theory in Europe reverberated in the Americas, shaping new styles and sensibilities. By focusing on “rare” writers and works often neglected in canonical histories, Torres-Rioseco not only reconstructs forgotten chapters of colonial and nineteenth-century letters but also reframes the genealogy of Latin American modernism. A landmark in comparative and regional criticism, Ensayos sobre literatura latinoamericana remains essential for understanding how the continent’s literature emerged from a complex interplay of European legacies, indigenous traditions, and the creative innovations of American writers themselves.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1953.
At once scholarly and accessible, this volume reveals how Latin American literature continually negotiated questions of influence, originality, and identity. The book links figures as diverse as Góngora, Poe, Rubén Darío, and José Asunción Silva, tracing how debates over poetic form and theory in Europe reverberated in the Americas, shaping new styles and sensibilities. By focusing on “rare” writers and works often neglected in canonical histories, Torres-Rioseco not only reconstructs forgotten chapters of colonial and nineteenth-century letters but also reframes the genealogy of Latin American modernism. A landmark in comparative and regional criticism, Ensayos sobre literatura latinoamericana remains essential for understanding how the continent’s literature emerged from a complex interplay of European legacies, indigenous traditions, and the creative innovations of American writers themselves.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1953.