Acknowledgements

The following people deserve special thanks: Henry Sussman, for his support and advice throughout my academic life in Buffalo; Arthur Efron, Eric Stenclic, John Pollard, and Kristin Dykstra for their precious suggestions when I was revising parts of the original manuscript; Sally Inkpin for the final review of the book as it stands now; José Amícola, for providing me with his invaluable material about Manuel Puig; Suzanne Jill Levine, for her recommendations and prompt answer to my questions; Roger D. Sell, Series Editor of FILLM Studies in Languages and Literatures for having believed; and the outside readers of John Benjamins Publishing Company for their invaluable comments.

Finally, I thank Claudio Gotti, the editorial director of Aracne Editrice in Italy, for granting permission to include in Chapter 2 material previously published in the article “Pop literature and mass media” in the book Percorsi italo-brasiliani: Dieci anni di convenzione UdA-UFBA (2011, 45–68), organized by Silvia La Regina.