The literary heritage of Borges' fiction can be understood in the broader context of Latin-American literature, and more specifically, Argentine literature. Before conquest and colonization by European forces, the native Indian cultures of Latin- America had a well-developed tradition of written and oral literature. Latin-American literature since colonization emerged from the narratives of the conquered native Indian peoples as well as the European conquerors themselves. Later, the literature sprang from the Native Indian's struggles against colonial domination, which became known as a "literature of oppression." Latin-American literature in the latter half of the twentieth century developed a concern with literary and linguistic form, as exemplified by the experimental short stories of Borges, first published in the late 1940s. Borges also imported the avant-garde poetic movement of "Ultraism" (Ultraismo, named for the literary journal Ultra, to which he was a regular contributor) from Spain to Buenos Aires...