Areas of interest include: Modernismo; Latin American Literature; Literature of the Hispanic Caribbean; interrelations of journalism and literature; literature and ethics. Among other works, he has authored the following books: La crónica modernista hispanoamericana (Madrid: Porrúa Turanzas, 1983); La novela modernista hispanoamericana (Madrid: Gredos, 1987); Journalism and the Development of Spanish American Narrative (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993),Killer Books: Violence, Writing, and Ethics in Modern Spanish American Narrative (Austin: U of Texas Press, 2002; Spanish translation: Abusos y admoniciones: ética y escritura en la narrativa hispanoamericana moderna, México: Siglo XXI Editores, 2002) and A Companion to Spanish American Modernismo (London: Tamesis, 2007). His most recent book isLove and Politics in the Contemporary Spanish American Novel (Austin: U of Texas Press, 2010).