Myth and Archive offers a new theory about the origin and evolution of the Latin American narrative, and about the emergence of the modern novel. Instead of following the traditional categories set up by literary history, Professor González Echevarría explores the relationship of the narrative to the language of authority: the law in the colonial period, science in the nineteenth century, and anthropology in the twentieth century. The book contains readings of major works in the tradition such as Garcilaso el Inca's Comentarios reales, Sarmiento's Facundo, Carpentier's Los pasos perdidos, and García Marquez's Cien años de soledad.