Part I. Geographical, Social and Historical Contexts: 1. Mapping Bolaño's worlds Jonathan B. Monroe; 2. Chile, 1953–1973 María Inés Lagos; 3. The Pinochet era, 1973–1990 Michael J. Lazarra; 4. Dictatorships in the Southern Cone Ksenija Bilbija; 5. Mexico City, 1968 Viviane Mahieux; 6. Mexico City, Paris, and life versus art Rubén Gallo; 7. Spain, Europe, 1977–2003 Ana Fernández-Cebrían; 8. Transatlantic currents: Europe and the Americas Rory O'Bryen; Part II. Shaping Events and Literary History: 9. France, Spain, 1938 Juli Highfill; 10. The Cold War Patrick Iber; 11. After the fall of the wall: 1989–2001 Edmundo Paz Soldán; 12. Latin American literature Ilan Stavans; 13. French connections Dominique Jullien; 14. German and Russian precursors Thomas O. Beebee; 15. After the two 9/11s: Santiago de Chile, 1973, New York, 2001 Nicholas Birns; Part III: Genres, Discourses, Media: 16. Essays and short stories José Luis Venegas; 17. Poetry I: the ghost that runs through the writing Rubén Medina; 18. Poetry II: parody and the question of history Sergio Villalobos-Ruminott; 19. The novel and the canon Roberto González Echevarría; 20. Detective fiction Pablo Piccato; 21. Journalism, media, mass culture Tania Gentic; 22. Literary criticism and literary history Ana Del Sarto; Part IV. Aesthetics, Culture, and Politics: 23. The abomination of literature Brett Levinson; 24. Religion and politics Aníbal González; 25. Gender and sexuality Ana Forcinito; 26. Race and ethnicity Juan Decastro; 27. Trauma and collective memory Ryan F. Long; 28. Fictions of the avant-gardes Michelle Clayton; 29. Love and friendship Ignacio López-Calvo; 30. World literature: twenty-first-century legacies Héctor Hoyos.