Comparative literature in Latin American studies

In her article “Comparative Literature in Latin American Studies” Sophia A. McClennen argues for the comparative study of Latin American literature in order to accord the field more canonical status both in Latin American Studies in Anglophone North America and in Latin American humanities scholarship. Believing in the efficacy of the comparative method and in its implicitly egalitarian approach to the world’s languages and literatures, McClennen’s intention is not to weaken or diminish comparative literature as a politically and intellectually important form of literary study but to strengthen it in order to open it up to the authors, texts, and traditions of one of the world’s most complex and challenging cultural conglomerates, Latin America.