The artistic production of the pre-Hispanic period, especially art produced under the Incan Empire, is largely unknown. Literature produced in the central-Andean region of modern-day Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia and Chile, was transmitted orally, as there were no known writing systems at the time. It consisted of two main poetic forms: harawis (from the Quechua language)--- a form of lyrical poetry---and hayllis--- a form of epic poetry. Both forms described the daily life and rituals of the time, and were recited by a poet known as the harawec.
Orally transmitted folktales expressed the cosmology of the Andean world, and included creation and destruction myths. Many of these stories have survived until the present, thanks in no small part to the efforts of early chroniclers such as Inca Garcilaso, who rediscovered Quechua poetry, and Guamán Poma de Ayala, who preserved mythology. Their inclusion in the "official canon" was a slow process, as they were not viewed with seriousness. For instance, Jose de la Riva Agüero, in his 1905 thesis Character of the Literature of Independent Peru considered the Pre-Hispanic literary tradition "insufficient" and unimportant in the formation of any new literary tradition. It was resurrected from obscurity in the 20th century, by a number of literary scholars and anthropologists who compiled and rescued Pre-Hispanic myths and legends. Among them are:
-Adolfo Vienrich - 'Tarmap Pacha Huaray (translated as 'Azucenas quechuas or Quechuan lilies), compiled in 1905; and Tarmapap Pachahuarainin (translated as Fabulas Quechuas or Quechuan fables), compiled in 1906
-Jorge Basadre - 'La literatura inca (Incan Literature), 1938; En torno a la literatura quechua (Regarding Quechua Literature), 1939.
-José Maráa Arguedas, who translated a 17th century manuscript entitledHombres y dioses de Huarochirí(Men and Gods of Huarochiri)
-Martin Lienhard - 'La voz y su huella. Escritura y conflicto étnico-cultural en América Latina. 1492-1988 (The Voice and its Influence: Scripture and Ethnocultural Conflict in Latin America. 1492-1988) 1992
-Antonio Cornejo Polar -'Escribir en el aire: ensayo sobre la heterogeneidad socio-cultural en las literaturas andinas (To Write in the Air: An Essay Concerning Socio-cultural Heterogeneity in Andean Literatures), 1994
-Edmundo Bendezú -'Literatura Quechua (Quechua Literature), 1980 and La otra literatura (The Other Literature), 1986
Bendezú affirms that Quechua oral tradition constitutes a marginal system opposed to the dominant Hispanicizing force. He speaks of a great tradition of "enormous textual mass" which was marginalized and sidelined by the Western scriptural system. Luis Alberto Sánchez, on the other hand, employed elements of the Pre-Hispanic tradition to illustrate his theory of a racially mixed "Creole" literature of both indigenous and Iberian parentage. To this end, he cited chronicles by authors such as Cieza, Betanzos and Garcilaso.

Related Links:
Inca Trail Peru
Lima Peru Guide