Although fictionaland often fantasticrepresentations of nature have been a distinguishing feature of Latin American literature for centuries, ecocriticism, understood as the study of literature as it relates to depictions of the natural world, environmental issues, and the ways in which human beings interact and identify with their natural surroundings, did not emerge as a field of scholarly interest in the region until the end of the twentieth century. This volume employs an ecocritical lens in order to explore and question the use of the river imagery in Latino and Latin American literature from the colonial period to our modern world, creating a space in which to examine both its literal and figurative meanings, associated as much with processes of a personal nature as with those of the collective experience in the region. The slow, meandering streams of nostalgia, the raging currents of conflict or the stagnant waters of social decay are just a few of the ways in which the river has become an important symbol and inspiration to many of the regions writers. This book offers a diverse collection of writings that, through a trans-historical and trans-geographical perspective, allows us, from the vantage point of the twenty-first century, to reflect on the rich and dynamic image of the river and, by extension, on the vital context of Latin/o America, its people and societies.

Jeanie Murphyis associate professor of Spanish and Latin American studies at Goucher College.Elizabeth G. Rivero is associate professor of Spanish at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Introduction: Written in the Water: The Image of the River in Latin/o American LiteraturePart I: Memory of Water: Rivers and the Politics and Praxis of Remembrance1 Along the River of Memory:Los fuegos de San Telmo by José Pedro DíazElizabeth G. Rivero2 Floating Statues and Streams of Consciousness: Memory Work in Argentina's Río de la Plata and Río SalíBridget V. Franco3 From Obstinate Memory to Explosions of Recollections: Rivers as Cultural Sites of RemembranceJulia A. KushigianPart II: Rivers at the Crossroads: Borders, Land/Cityscapes and Social Imaginaries as Contested Spaces4 The River as Political Quagmire: Mempo Giardinelli's An Impossible BalanceJeanie Murphy5 Rippling Borders in Latina LiteratureRebeca L. Hey-Colón6 Social and Geographical Landscapes: The River as Metaphor for Female SexualityKathryn Quinn-Sanchez7 Myth and Reality: Imaging the River in Early Colonial Spanish WritingJ. Manuel Gómez8 Writing the Riverbanks in El libro flotante by Leonardo ValenciaRenata ÉgüezAbout the Contributors