The Allure of Nezahualcoyotl: Pre-Hispanic History, Religion, and Nahua Poetics

by Jongsoo Lee

Overview

Nezahualcoyotl (1402-1472), the "poet-king" of Texcoco, has been described as one of the most important pre-Hispanic figures in Nahua history. Since the conquest, European chroniclers have continually portrayed him as a symbol of Aztec civilization and culture, a wise governor and lawmaker, poet and patron of the arts, and proto-monotheist. Their chronicles have served as sources for anthropologists, historians, and literary critics who focus on these contrived images and continually reproduce the colonial propaganda on Nezahualcoyotl. This, as Jongsoo Lee argues, subsequently leads to a misrepresentation of the history, religion, literature, and politics of pre-Hispanic Mexico that are altered to support such images of Nezahualcoyotl.

Lee provides a new assessment of Nezahualcoyotl that critically examines original codices and poetry written in Nahuatl alongside Spanish chronicles in an effort to paint a more realistic portrait of the legendary Aztec figure. Urging scholars away from sources that reinforce a Judeo-Christian perspective of pre-Hispanic history, Lee offers a revision of the colonial images of Nahua history and culture that have continued over the last five hundred years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826343383
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	08/01/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Jongsoo Lee is an associate professor of Spanish and teaches pre-Hispanic and colonial Latin American literature and culture in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of North Texas.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction     1
The Sources     17
The Sources, Colonial Ideology, and Texcoca Regionalism     19
Revising Pre-Hispanic History     47
Founding the Texcoca Dynasty: Chichimec Xolotl and Toltec Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl     49
Revisiting Pre-Hispanic Central Mexico: Texcoca Reality before Nezahualcoyotl     73
Reexamining Nezahualcoyotl's Texcoco: Politics, Government, and Legal System     96
Revising the Study of Nahua Poetics     129
Nezahualcoyotl and the Notion of Individual Authorship in Nahua Poetry     131
A Reinterpretation of Nahua Poetics: Nahua Cosmogony, Nahua Songs, and Nezahualcoyotl     151
A Reinterpretation of Nahua Poetic Themes: Ephemerality, War and Sacrifice, and Nezahualcoyotl     173
Revising the Study of Nahua Religion     191
The Westernization of Nahua Religion: Nezahualcoyotl's Unknown God     193
Conclusion     229
Epilogue: Nezhualcoyotl and the Irony of Colonialism in Ernesto Cardenal's Poetry     233
Notes     241
Glossary     254
References     260
Index     271