TITLE: Latin-American Comparatism and Popular and `Mass′ Literature: from the Stereotype to New Identity Constructions in the Meeting of Ones with Others. TíTULO: Comparatismo latinoamericano y literatura popular y de masas: del estereotipo a nuevas construcciones de identidad en el encuentro de unos con otros.

ABSTRACT: The encounter, sometimes unbalanced and stereotyped and others revealing and functional, between ones and others across cultural and artistic texts is a phenomenon that has been intensified in Latin America on the context of economic globalization and the mundialization of culture. Beyond the myth of continental unit that has been constructed along the modern history, and off the role that canonical literature has been playing in this phenomenon, for example across the Boom, a circulation of fictional "latin" products -tag of the cultural USA imperialism- immersed in popular culture, has become more and more intense between the different countries of Latin America. Inside this reality the intention is to determine what scope, sense and function have some recent methodologies of the universal comparative literature -like imagology- and those of the Latin-American comparatism, to answer questions related to the images that the different societies construct on themselves and on others by their textual production of massive and popular range. This in a postcolonial, multicultural and `mestiza′ Latin America where criticism of its own has not displaced yet eurocentric and north-American perspectives. Finally, we carried out a reflection on the role that critical theory can play in intercultural relations that create new identities which are not always balanced or fair and sometimes help to feed negative stereotypes and transform traditions in to simplified elements of consumption. RESUMEN: El encuentro, a veces desequilibrado y estereotípico, otras revelador y funcional, entre unos y otros, a través de textos culturales y artísticos, es un fenómeno que se ha intensificado en Latinoamérica en el marco de la globalización económica y la mundialización de la cultura. Más allá del mito de unidad continental que se ha venido construyendo a lo largo de la historia moderna, y del papel que en este fenómeno ha desempe ado la literatura culta, a través del llamado boom, por ejemplo, una circulación de productos ficcionales “latinos” –etiqueta del imperialismo cultural estadounidense–, literarios o no, y enmarcados en la llamada cultura popular, es cada vez más intensa entre los distintos países de América Latina. Dentro de este fenómeno, la intención es determinar qué alcance, sentido y función poseen algunas metodologías recientes de la literatura comparada universal –como la imagología– y del comparatismo latinoamericano para responder a cuestiones relacionadas con las imágenes que las distintas sociedades construyen sobre sí mismas y sobre los otros en s