Doctor in Literature from the Catholic University, Peru. In 1989 he started working as a lecturer at the Hispanic Studies Department of Brown University and he has been director of the Trans-Atlantic Project since 1998.
He is the author of numerous books of literary criticism and essays on literature: Caja de herramientas. Prácticas culturales para el nuevo siglo chileno (2000), El principio radical de lo nuevo (1997), Retrato de Carlos Fuentes (1995), Arte de innovar (1994), Poetics of Change, with prologue by José Lezama Lima (1992), Cultura y literatura en Puerto Rico (1991); Gabriel García Márquez and the Powers of Fiction (1988); Crítica de la Identidad (1988); Cultura y modernidad en la Lima del 900 (1987); Poetics of Change, The New Spanish-American Narrative (1986), amongst others.
Within his literary production, as well as cultivating the genres of theatre and poetry, his narrative work stands out, with works such as Habanera (1999), Emotions (2000), La mesa del padre (1995) and Ayacucho, Goodbye: Moscow's Gold (1994).