Canons, bodies, and the teaching critic

Abstract

Over the last thirty years, the trends in Spanish-American literature and its criticism echo those in other areas of Westem/Eurocentric literature. Admittedly, Spanish-American literature and its criticism are rarely in sync with those other spheres. Movements are generally adopted late in Spanish-American literary criticism but adopted they are, as well as adapted to what we like to consider the unique characteristics of Spanish-American literature. The specific questions, where does Spanish-American literary criticism seem to have been, and where does it seem to be today, have proven far less simplistic than they might initially appear, especially as I am forced to recognize that I am merely one reader reading, one reader projecting onto texts, both literary and critical ones.