Concise Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature


Book Description

The Concise Encyclopedia includes: all entries on topics and countries, cited by many reviewers as being among the best entries in the book; entries on the 50 leading writers in Latin America from colonial times to the present; and detailed articles on some 50 important works in this literature-those who read and studied in the English-speaking world.




Collision of Worlds


Book Description

"Mexico of five centuries ago was witness to one of the most momentous encounters between human societies, when a group of Spaniards led by Hernando Cortâes joined forces with tens of thousands of Mesoamerican allies to topple the mighty Aztec empire. It served as a template for the forging of much of Latin America and began the globalized world we inhabit today. This violent encounter and the new colonial order it created, a New Spain, was millennia in the making, with independent cultural developments on both sides of the Atlantic and their fateful entanglement during the pivotal Aztec-Spanish war of 1519-1521. Collision of World examines the deep history of this encounter with an archaeological lens-one that considers depth in the richly layered cultures of Mexico and Spain, like the depths that archaeologists reveal through excavation to chart early layers of human history. It offers a unique perspective on the encounter through its temporal depth and focus on the physical world of places and things, their similarities and differences in trans-Atlantic perspective, and their interweaving in an encounter characterized by conquest and colonialism, but also active agency and resilience on the part of Native peoples"--




Chimalpahin's Conquest


Book Description

This volume presents the story of Hernando Cortés's conquest of Mexico, as recounted by a contemporary Spanish historian and edited by Mexico's premier Nahua historian. Francisco López de Gómara's monumental Historia de las Indias y Conquista de México was published in 1552 to instant success. Despite being banned from the Americas by Prince Philip of Spain, La conquista fell into the hands of the seventeenth-century Nahua historian Chimalpahin, who took it upon himself to make a copy of the tome. As he copied, Chimalpahin rewrote large sections of La conquista, adding information about Emperor Moctezuma and other key indigenous people who participated in those first encounters. Chialpahin's Conquest is thus not only the first complete modern English translation of López de Gómara's La conquista, an invaluable source in itself of information about the conquest and native peoples; it also adds Chimalpahin's unique perspective of Nahua culture to what has traditionally been a very Hispanic portrayal of the conquest.




Writers of the Spanish Colonial Period


Book Description

"These critical studies propose innovative readings and overall reformulations of the texts and authors that stand as representative of the period for the contemporary reader. The first group of articles refers to reports, chronicles, and Renaissance epics, a vast block of texts that fall in most cases halfway between history and narrative fiction, and examine the experiences of the discovery, the conquest, and the colonization of the new territories. The second group concentrates on regionally marked texts from the Baroque period, especially those of the central figure of the Mexican nun poet and intellectual, Sor Juana In s de la Cruz. Finally, there are some essays on representative texts of the latter part of the colonial period."--Publisher's description.




Prehistoric Mesoamerica


Book Description

In this revised edition of Prehistoric Mesoamerica, Richard E. W. Adams updates his widely adopted text with material from recent archaeological fieldwork to present a balanced summary and overview of the region that is today Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. Following an introduction to Mesoamerican studies, a brief geographic sketch of the region, and a summary of the major features of its civilizations, Adams examines in detail each period of cultural history: the first immigrants; the Olmec and their contemporaries; Maya beginnings and classic civilization; the great cities of Teotihuacan and Monte Alban; the rise and fall of the Toltec; and the civilizations of the Tarascans, Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Totonacs, and Aztecs.




Religion and Empire


Book Description

A provocative, comparative study of the formation and expansion of the Aztec and Inca empires. Argues that prehistoric cultural development is largely determined by continual changes in traditional religion.




The Americana


Book Description




Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature


Book Description

A comprehensive, encyclopedic guide to the authors, works, and topics crucial to the literature of Central and South America and the Caribbean, the Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature includes over 400 entries written by experts in the field of Latin American studies. Most entries are of 1500 words but the encyclopedia also includes survey articles of up to 10,000 words on the literature of individual countries, of the colonial period, and of ethnic minorities, including the Hispanic communities in the United States. Besides presenting and illuminating the traditional canon, the encyclopedia also stresses the contribution made by women authors and by contemporary writers. Outstanding Reference Source Outstanding Reference Book