The Lazarillo Phenomenon addresses a fundamental question in Hispanic Studies, why do we continue studying La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes? As a classic literary text, Lazarillo's destiny depends on the relations it establishes over time with individuals and institutions responsible for literary, commercial, and ideological matters. This book brings together nine literary scholars from different critical approaches who address this question and reconsider the state of Lazarillo studies.

The Lazarillo Phenomenon directs the reader's attention away from traditional concerns and toward different areas such as the complexities surrounding the production, transmission, and reception of the novel across time, and the wide-ranging social, historical, political, literary, economic, and religious circumstances in which it was written, banned, censured, and finally re-circulated. Contributors include Reyes Coll-Tellechea, María V. Jordán Arroyo, Ismene Kansí, Sean McDaniel, Joseph V. Ricapito, Theresa Ann Sears, Benjamín Torrico, Anthony Zahareas, and Oscar Pereira Zazo.