ABSTRACT
Critics characterize Latin American literature and Caribbean literature, separately or collectively, as resistant. Placing these two distinct literatures and cultures next to each other allows for finer distinctions to be made about what exactly is being resisted, how this resistance functions, and what positive aspects of these literatures emerge. Latin America and the Caribbean both contain within themselves a number of different ethnic groups, but they have very different ways of conceptualizing the place of these groups within the nation. The issue of cultural blending within national identity is directly related to issues of history and the idea of the modern. Both the Caribbean and Latin America have written theories about why their literature and theatre might be distinctive. In both cases, geographic issues arise. One trend in Caribbean literature is adaptation of classical Western texts. Internationally, Latin American literature is frequently associated with magical realism. Magical realism is one of the modernist moves in Latin American literature.
