10 Years After

Ashes and Ghosts

I had seen a flyer up at the end of the Spring semester for a class on the Aztecs (Span 4956/5956: Aztec Culture and Western Literature). Bonus was that the class, while being a senior level Spanish class, was that it was to be in English. However, due to my economic situation I couldn't fit it in (it's a pre-summer class, too). In anycase, I emailed the professor and asked for a syllabus. Here's the highlights:

Course objectives:
1. To acquaint students with the richness and complexity of Aztec (Mexica) culture
2. To familiarize students with the culture and history of Mexico during and after the Conquest
3. To acquaint students with concepts from the Renaissance concerning discovery and exploration, including utopian ideas
4. To familiarize students with the cultural and literary legacy of the Aztecs resulting from their contact with the Spanish
5. To read and study works of literature from Mexico which concern the Aztec influence.

List of major topics covered.
1. An overview of Pre-Columbian America.
2. Special focus on the culture and history of the people known to us as the Aztecs.
3. The story of their conquest by the Spaniards
4. A brief overview of the colony of New Spain (now Mexico)
5. Presentation and discussion of the Aztec image in Europe during the Renaissance, the Baroque, and the Enlightenment and modern periods
6. An overview of Mexican history and culture since Independence from Spain
7. Reading of literature influenced by the Aztec image (works by Carlos Fuentes, Fuentes, D. H. Lawrence, Octavio Paz)

Readings:
A.Required, in bibliographic format (textbooks)*
1. Fagan, Brian. The Aztecs. W. H. Freeman, 1984.
2. Fuentes, Carlos. Where the Air is Clear. New York: Noonday, 1971.
3. Lawrence, D. H. The Plumed Serpent. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988.
4. Paz, Octavio. The Labyrinth of Solitude: The Other Mexico, Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude, Mexico and the United States, the Philanthropic Ogre. New York: Grove, 1985.

B.Recommended, in bibliographic format with ETSU library call number if held.
1. Keen, Benjamin. The Aztec Image in Western Thought. Brunswick: Rutgers, 1991. 972.014 K25
*All readings will be in English.

Course Grade:
30 Participation
20 Midterm
30 Essays (3)
20 Final Exam

I've long had a fascination with the Aztecs. Also, more recently, I came across an interesting passage about the Aztecs while I was doing research on the Navajo:

South of the RioGrande, the American Indian languages enjoy far greater vitality than in the United States or Candada.The Aztec tongue is still spoken by nearly one million people in northern and central Mexico, and is quite alive in Mexican place-names. Characteristic of this language is the tl-group found in names like Tlaxcala and Nahuatl, the coyotl, chokolatl, and tomatl that give us "coyote", "chocolate", and "tomato". "Aztec" means "Crane People," "Toltec" "skilled workers" (this is an Aztec name; the Toltec's own name for themselves is Aculhuaque, or "Strong Me"). Montezuma is a Spanish shortening of Montecuzumai Thucamina ("When the Chief is Angry, He Shoots to Heaven"). South of the Aztecs and Toltecs are the Mayas of Guatemala and Yucatan, who dominated Central America during the first twelve hundered years of our era.
(p334 "The Story of Language." Mario Pei)