Creolization describes the cultural adaptations that occur when a community moves to a new geographic setting. Exploring the consciousness of peoples defined as "creoles" who moved from the Old World to the New World, this collection of eighteen original essays investigates the creolization of literary forms and genres in the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. facilitates a cross-disciplinary, intrahemispheric, and Atlantic comparison of early settlers' colonialism and creole elites' relation to both indigenous peoples and imperial regimes. Contributors explore literatures written in Spanish, Portuguese, and English to identify creole responses to such concepts as communal identity, local patriotism, nationalism, and literary expression. The essays take the reader from the first debates about cultural differences that underpinned European ideologies of conquest to the transposition of European literary tastes into New World cultural contexts, and from the natural science discourse concerning creolization to the literary manifestations of creole patriotism. The volume includes an addendum of etymological terms and critical bibliographic commentary. Contributors:Ralph Bauer, University of MarylandRaquel Chang-Rodriguez, City University of New YorkLucia Helena Costigan, Ohio State UniversityJim Egan, Brown UniversitySandra M. Gustafson, University of Notre DameCarlos Jauregui, Vanderbilt UniversityYolanda Martinez-San Miguel, University of PennsylvaniaJose Antonio Mazzotti, Tufts UniversityStephanie Merrim, Brown UniversitySusan Scott Parrish, University of MichiganLuis Fernando Restrepo, University of Arkansas, FayettevilleJeffrey H. Richards, Old Dominion UniversityKathleen Ross, New York UniversityDavid S. Shields, University of South CarolinaTeresa A. Toulouse, Tulane UniversityLisa Voigt, University of ChicagoJerry M. Williams, West Chester University