Nahuatl Theater from Colonial Mexico

FAIN: RZ-50012-03

SUNY Research Foundation, Albany (Albany, NY 12222-0001)
Louise M. Burkhart (Project Director: August 2002 to April 2008)

Preparation of three volumes of a four-volume series that will make available edited translations of dramatic works in Nahuatl, the Aztec language of indigenous Mexico. (36 months)

This project will produce a reference collection of texts, translations, and analyses of the colonial Nahuatl (Aztec-language) theater that developed in Mexico as Spanish and indigenous writers scripted plays on Christian themes and adapted European plays for native audiences. Nahuatl, a lingua franca in the Aztec Empire and the Spanish colony, is the only native language in which colonial dramas survive. A series of four volumes, plus an English-only student volume, has been accepted by the University of Oklahoma Press. Volume 1 is complete; during the grant period volumes 2 and 3 will be completed and research and translation work for volume 4 will be prepared. volume 2 features Spanish Golden-Age dramas that were adapted into Nahuatl; Volume 3 foucuses on dramatizations of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Associated Products

Nahuatl Theater, Volume 4: Nahua Christianity in Performance (Book)
Title: Nahuatl Theater, Volume 4: Nahua Christianity in Performance
Editor: Louise M. Burkhart
Editor: Barry D. Sell
Abstract: Barry D. Sell and Louise M. Burkhart have chosen plays that represent the types of dramas performed in late-colonial Aztec communities and underscore the differences between local religion and church doctrine. Included are a complex epiphany drama from Metepec, two morality plays, two Passion plays, and three history plays that show how Nahuas dramatized Christian legends to reinterpret the Spanish Conquest. Fruits of a performance tradition rooted in sixteenth-century collaborations between Franciscan friars and Nahua students, these plays demonstrate how vigorously Nahuas maintained their traditions of community theater, passing scripts from one town to another and preserving them over many generations. The editors provide new insights into Nahua conceptions of Christianity and of society, gender, and morality in the late colonial period. Their precise transcriptions and first-time English translations make this, along with the previous volumes, a resource for Mesoamerican scholars.
Year: 2009
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/nahuatl-theater/oclc/54966362&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.oupress.com/ECommerce/Book/Detail/746/nahuatl%20theater%20%20volume%204
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780806140100
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

---