Literatures and Cultures of Latin America encompasses Hispanic American Studies, Brazilian Studies and Caribbean Studies. Its major concern is the study of the diversity of literary and cultural forms of representation in Latin America within the context of an increasingly interconnected world. Thus particular emphasis is placed upon past and present transforma- tional phenomena resulting from cultural processes of interdependencies both in Latin America and globally.

Teaching and research employ both literature and cultural studies approaches. One of the main tasks is critical literary analysis: the origin of texts, literary his- tory, issues of genre and literary theory. At the same time, the point of departure taken is that in-depth understanding (in the sense of Area Studies) can only be achieved via comprehensive and interdisciplinary research questions, for example, with regard to translation processes or the movement of cultural knowledge in transregional spaces.