Americas, Otherwise

"The Americas, Otherwise" explores the growing influence of the study of the Americas - variously referred to as Americas Studies, Transamerican Studies, Hemispheric Studies, and Interamerican Studies - on the field of comparative literature. The essays in this special issue suggest the centrality of comparative studies of the Americas to the revision of the discipline as a whole, as well as to intellectual practice in other disciplines. These essays foreground the work of important hemispheric writers, artists, and public intellectuals such as Roberto Bolano, Alejo Carpentier, Aime Cesaire, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Edouard Glissant, Jose Marti, Ricardo Piglia, and Leopoldo Zea. Topics include migration to the Americas from Asia, Europe, and Africa; hemispheric exceptionalisms since the establishment of the first colonies; the interdisciplinary foundations of border studies; theories of the neobaroque and their application to Latin American cultural formations; Latino critical theory; and the emergence of a southern theory inclusive of the intellectual work of often-marginalized cultures. Contributors include Antonio Barrenechea, J. Andrew Brown, Amaryll Chanady, Enrique Dussel, Mary Jean Green, Djelal Kadir, Alfred J. Lopez, Marie-Pierrette Malcuzynski, Sarah Pollack, Ignacio M. Sanchez Prado, Silvia Spitta, Alex Steyn, Christopher Winks, and Lois Parkinson Zamora. Lois Parkinson Zamora is John and Rebecca Moores Distinguished Professor in the Departments of English, History, and Art at the University of Houston. Silvia Spitta is Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Chair of the Comparative Literature Program at Dartmouth College.