Wonder and Exile in the New World

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1 Wonder and Exile: Mystical and Prophetic Perspectives

2 Wanderers and Wonderers in the New World: Voices of the Dispossessed

3 The Hidden God of the Baroque: Baroque Wonders, Baroque Tragedies

4 Baroque Artists in Exile: Cervantes and Sor Juana

5 Mysticism and the Marvelous in Latin American Literature

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

“Alex Nava traces the multiple and inextricable operations of wonder—awe and puzzlement, marvel and mystery, exuberance and exile—in Spain and Latin America over almost five centuries. Wonder is historicized, beginning with European wonderment at unknown territories and peoples in the Americas, moving to the very different kinds of wonderment in Cervantes and Sor Juana, and arriving at the magical realism of our own time. The Baroque and New World Baroque overarch this far-reaching study, underpin its comparative cultural insights, and amplify our own sense of wonder at the dimensions of our shared experience.”

—Lois Parkinson Zamora, University of Houston