This volume collects original contributions discussing aspects, dimensions, and major problems of cultural mobility and knowledge formation in the Americas from an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective. Looking at the Americas as a site of multi-directional entanglement and interaction, the chapters highlight the non-English and non-European contexts of the United States from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. They focus on processes of cultural hybridity resulting from the encounter of European, Native American, African, and Asian cultures in the Americas. Contributions to this volume come from the fields of history, political science, geography, literary criticism, and cultural studies. Besides investigating the intellectual construction of the Americas, the texts analyze the history of slavery and emancipation, trace African Diasporas in Colombia and Brazil, critically assess the problem of democracy in Latin America, and scrutinize phenomena of literary entanglements in the Western hemisphere.
