Spanish-American literature first came to the attention of a world-wide audience in the 1960s, but it has a continuous tradition stretching back to the Conquest. This new introduction to the Spanish-American literary canon retraces that history, with sections on the major literary writers and works of Spanish America from the Conquest to the present day, ranging from the Popol Vuh, the Bible of the Mayas, to Isabel Allende's The House of Spirits, a novel on contemporary Chile.

Authors covered in the colonial era range from chroniclers such as Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and Cieza de Leon, to epic poets such as Ercilla y Zuniga and all-rounders such as Ines de la Cruz.

The chapters dealing with the nineteenth century have separate sections on Romanticism and the realist novel, and include discussion of writers as various as Bello and Fernandez de Lizardi, Gomez de Avellaneda and Matto de Turner. Areas traditionally relegated to no more than a cursory glance in the average literary manual, such as the essay and the theatre, are studied separately.

There are also separate sections on the modernistas and postmodernismo, avant-garde poetry in the twentieth century, and the Boom novel. A final chapter is dedicated to an analysis of some recent developments within the Spanish-American literary canon, such as the post-Boom novel, with a separate section on women writers, 'testimonio', Latino literature, the gay/lesbian novel, and Afro-Hispanic literature.

Although Spanish-American literature first came to the attention of a world-wide audience in the 1960s, it enjoys a continuous tradition stretching back to the Conquest. This introduction to the Spanish-American literary canon re-traces that history in a clear and readable style. It contains short, incisive sections on the major literary writers and works of Spanish America from the Conquest to the present day, ranging from the Popol Vuh, the Bible of the Mayas, to Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits, a novel on contemporary Chile. The book treats authors in considerable depth, and addresses in particular the social value of the literary work and the ways in which it functioned in the society which gave it life. STEPHEN M. HART is Professor of Hispanic Studies, University College London, and Profesor Honorario, Universidad de San Marcos, Lima.