Colonial Tropes and Postcolonial Tricks Rewriting the Tropics in the novela de la selva

This volume offers a new reading of the Spanish-Americannovela de la selvagenre, often interpreted as a belated imitation of European travel literature. Arguing against the commonly held opinion of the genre's derivative nature,Colonial Tropes and Postcolonial Tricksexamines hownovela de la selvafiction reimagined the tropics from a Latin American perspective and redefined tropical landscape aesthetics and ethnography through parodic rewritings of European perspectives. Analyzing four emblematic novels of the genre, this book considers the crucial place of the jungle as a locus for the contestation of national and literary identity by post-independence Latin American writers.