In Writing in the Air , Cornejo Polar decenters literature as the primary marker of Latin American cultural identity, emphasizing instead the interlacing of multiple narratives that generates the heterogeneity of contemporary Latin American culture.

Originally published in 1994, Writing in the Air is one of the most significant books of modern Latin American literary and cultural criticism. In this seminal work, the influential Latin American literary critic Antonio Cornejo Polar offers the most extended articulation of his efforts to displace notions of hybridity or "mestizaje" dominant in Latin American cultural studies with the concept of heterogeneity: the persistent interaction of cultural difference that cannot be resolved in synthesis. He reexamines encounters between Spanish and indigenous Andean cultural systems in the New World from the Conquest into the 1980s. Through innovative readings of narratives of conquest and liberation, homogenizing nineteenth- and twentieth-century discourses, and contemporary Andean literature, he rejects the dominance of the written word over oral literature. Cornejo Polar decenters literature as the primary marker of Latin American cultural identity, emphasizing instead the interlacing of multiple narratives that generates the heterogeneity of contemporary Latin American culture.

"For cultural critics and theorists who read only English, Writing in the Air will have a special value, as each chapter (dealing with a major problem in the cultural formation of Latin America) benefits from the perspective that an extremely well-read and well-versed critic brings to the formulation of the problematic at hand. The prose is clear, the thinking has been slimmed down, the focus is unyielding, and the translator has done a very good job." - Critical Inquiry

"This attractive English edition of Cornejo Polar’s masterful excursion into Andean heterogeneity is a charter for investigating verbal discourse as a reflector and driver of history and its cultural formations."  - Anthropological Linguistics

"Writing in the Air reoriented and revitalized Latin American literary scholarship.... [T]he translator skillfully renders Cornejo Polar’s sometimes complex ideas in a rich prose that is pleasant to read. Indeed, this translation will be very important for scholars who work in comparative or Anglo-American literature and who, otherwise, would not have the linguistic tools to read works written by Latin American or Latino authors.... It will also be a useful tool for undergraduate students beginning their careers as Spanish, comparative literature, or Latin American studies majors. For those cohort groups, it should be considered a must-have item."  - Hispania

" "A book this important merits a skillful presentation to the English speaking world, and Lynda J. Jentsch has produced a translation reflecting the high standards and innovative vision of its author. Jean Franco's incisive and thoughtful preface gives important perspectives on this book in its Latin American context." " - Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas

"There is something so immense and wonderful in Cornejo Polar’s vision that, ultimately, it exceeds the bounds of his writing." - Journal of Folklore Research