Mediterranean studies flourish in literary and cultural studies, but the concepts of the Mediterranean and the theories and methods they use are very disparate. This is due to the fact that the Mediterranean is not a simple geographical or historical unity, but a multiplicity, a network of highly interconnected elements, each of which is different and individual. Talking about Mediterranean literature raises the question of whether the connectivity of Mediterranean literature can or should be limited in some way by constructing an inside and an outside of the Mediterranean. What kind of connectivity and fragmentation do literary texts produce, how do they build and interrupt references (to the real world, to history, but also to other texts and discourses), how do they create and deny communication, and how do they take up and reflect literary and non-literary concepts of the Mediterranean? These and other questions will be discussed and answered in the over twenty contributions gathered in this volume.

En este volumen colectivo se reunen miembros de diferentes equipos internacionales de investigacion sobre la novela corta y los saberes del Siglo de Oro. El hilo conductor de los catorce ensayos incluidos se cifra en la tentativa de analizar - a la luz tanto de los rasgos mas tipicos como de la variedad y versatilidad que lo caracterizan - uno de los generos mas genuinos del Seiscientos, deudor, por un lado, del acervo de los 'novellieri' (a partir de Boccaccio, Bandello y Straparola), y, por el otro, de las "Novelas ejemplares" de Cervantes, con vistas a futuros desarrollos metodologicos e interdisciplinares.