"Beginning with the scientific travelers and travelogues of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this book traces the relations between the discourse of science and the discourse of literature through the influence of the human sciences in the first half of the twentieth century, and on to that of the communication and information sciences, including the new multimedia technologies in the second half of our century.".

"This book seeks to elucidate both the historical and the present responses of a technologically dependent culture to the discourse of science and technology, as these responses are represented in its literature. Additionally, the book endeavors to analyze the mutual influences of science, technology, and literature in order to ascertain the degree to which literature does serve, and might serve, to transform the roles of technology in Latin American society."--BOOK JACKET.