2000 years of Mayan literature / / Dennis Tedlock ; with new translations and interpretations by the author

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910807068603321
• Autore: Tedlock Dennis <1939->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berkeley : , : University of California Press, , [2010]; ©2010
• ISBN: 0-520-94446-1
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (481 p.)
• Disciplina: 897/.4209
• Soggetti: Mayan literature - History and criticism; Mayan literature
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Learning to read -- Early Mayan writing -- The skilled observer from Maxam -- From the time of gods to the time of lords -- Cormorant and her three sons -- Temple of the Sun-eyed shield -- Temple of the Tree of yellow corn -- Lady Shark fin and the evening star -- The rattlesnakes of the City of three stones -- Drawing and designing with words -- Graffiti -- The question of the beginning and end of time -- The mouth of the well of the Itza -- Writing on the pages of books -- Signs of the times -- Moon woman meets the stars -- The power of the great star -- Thunderstorm -- Diagrams of the days -- The alphabet arrives in the Lowlands -- The books of Chilam Balam -- Understanding the language of Suyua -- Song of the birth of the twenty days -- Conversations with madness -- The alphabet arrives in the Highlands -- A way to see the dawn of life -- Blood moon becomes a trickster -- The death of death -- The human work, the human design -- We saw it all, oh my sons -- The count of days -- Man of Rabinal -- Epilogue.
• Sommario/riassunto: Mayan literature is among the oldest in the world, spanning an astonishing two millennia from deep pre-Columbian antiquity to the present day. Here, for the first time, is a fully illustrated survey, from the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions to the works of later writers using the Roman alphabet. Dennis Tedlock-ethnographer, linguist, poet, and award-winning author-draws on decades of living and working among ; the Maya to assemble this groundbreaking book, which is the first to treat ancient Mayan texts as literature. Tedlock considers the texts chronologically. He establishes that women were among the ancient writers and challenges the idea that Mayan rulers claimed the status of gods. 2000 Years of Mayan Literature expands our understanding and appreciation not only of Mayan literature but of indigenous American literature in its entirety.