| The Mexican Dream, Or, The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | J.M.G. Le Clézio |
| Original title | Le Rêve mexicain ou la pensée interrompue |
| Translator | Teresa Lavender Fagan |
| Country | France |
| Language | French translated into English |
| Subject(s) | Mesoamerican History |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (translation) |
| Publication date | 1965 |
| Published in English |
1993 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 221 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0-226-11002-8 |
| OCLC Number | 27814151 |
| Dewey Decimal | 972/.018 20 |
| LC Classification | F1230 .L3413 1993 |
"The Mexican Dream, Or, The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations" is the English translation of an essay written in French by French author and Nobel laureate J. M. G. Le Clézio.
Contents |
In the essay, Le Clézio conducts an inquiry into the brutal disappearance of the indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica in the 16th century, particularly the end of the Mexica civilization at the hands of the Spanish conquistadors. The author analyses the personalities of characters such as Hernán Cortés, La Malinche, Moctezuma II, Cuauhtémoc, and other key players in the conquest of Mesoamerica. He refers extensively to the descriptions offered by Bernal Díaz del Castillo in his Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España in analysing the events. He imagines what might have happened if the native populations had not been reduced to silence by brutality, and what their impact on western civilization might have been. Understanding that the West holds both economic and cultural sway over the contemporary world because of the colonization of America, he wonders how the cultural life of Mesoamerica – particularly that of the Aztecs – would have evolved if the arrival of the Europeans had not decimated the indigenous socieites through war, disease and slavery.[2]
11 editions published between 1988 and 2004 in 5 languages and held by 835 libraries worldwide [3]
Also published in French under Le Clézio, J.M.G. (1992). Le Rêve mexicain. Paris: Gallimard Folio. pp. 273. ISBN 978-2-07-032680-8. http://www.routard.com/mag_livre/45/le_reve_mexicain_.htm.
I am delighted—but not at all surprised!—that Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. When I read Le rêve mexicain—The Mexican Dream—for the first time, I was transported by Le Clézio’s language and message. The author imagined how the thought of early Indian civilizations might have evolved if not for the interruption of European conquest. And how our own civilization might have been different had we had the continued input of such advanced, now vanished, peoples[4]
— Teresa Lavender Fagan
:"Au cours du mois de mars 1517, les ambassadeurs de Moctezuma, seigneur de Mexico-Tenochtitlan, accueillent le navire de Hernán Cortés et cette rencontre initie une des plus terribles aventures du monde, qui s'achève par l'abolition de la civilisation indienne du Mexique, de sa pensée, de sa foi, de son art, de son savoir, de ses lois"
— Gallimard ;Original French text from the back-cover of the book "Le rêve mexicain ou la pensée interrompue"[5]
"During the month of March 1517, the ambassadors of Moctezuma , Lord of Mexico-Tenochtitlan are taken on board the ship of Hernán Cortés and their meeting initiates one of the most terrible adventures of the world, which ends with the extiction of the Indian civilization in Mexico along with their ideas, their religions,their arts, what they knew and their legal system"[5].
— Gallimard text to "Le rêve mexicain ou la pensée interrompue" , Translated free from French
Le Figaro and Kirkus Reviews reviewed the book.[6]
"In an unprecedented way, his book takes us into the dream that was the religion of the Aztecs, which in its own apocalyptic visions anticipated the coming of the Spanish conquerors. Here the dream of the conquistadores rises beforeus, too, the glimmering idea of gold drawing Europe into the Mexican dream. Against the religion and thought of the Aztecs and the Tarascans and the Europeans in Mexico, Le Clézio also shows us those of the "barbarians" of the north,the nomadic Indians beyond the pale of the Aztec frontier"
— The University of Chicago Press".[7]
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||