The method can have a broad focus, as in studies of race relations in the Americas or the literary representation of the Native American, or it can focus more narrowly on issues of influence and reception that link specific authors and texts. For example, certain novels by Brazil’s Machado de Assis influenced John Barth’s The Floating Opera, and Faulkner influenced a number of writers from Spanish America, including Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa.