Ellen T. Baird, University of Illinois at Chicago
Cristián Roa-De-La-Carrera, University of Illinois at
Chicago
Fridays, 1:00-4:00 pm; January 13 - March 17, 2006
Pictorial manuscripts occupied a central place in the intellectual
traditions of the Aztecs of Mesoamerica and recorded great historical events;
individual triumph, intrigue, and defeat; arcane religious practice; economic
transactions; dreams and prognostications; astronomical events; and land
ownership. This seminar will focus on the richness and vigor of indigenous
creativity and intellectual production in the colonial period with a particular
emphasis on pictorial documents. We will examine forms of continuity,
adaptation, and transformation of indigenous Nahua culture (the Aztecs'
colonial descendants) through the continued use of Aztec symbolic forms and the
introduction of the alphabetic writing of Nahuatl.
Through the use of
primary sources drawn from the Newberry Library's acclaimed collection of
colonial Mexican materials and secondary readings, we will explore the
persistence of indigenous culture and intellectual production in colonial
Mexico from 1519 to the eighteenth century and will analyze the interaction
between the Nahua and Europeans. We will examine original manuscripts, books,
documents, and maps focusing on the pictorial representation and language
through which the Nahua encoded knowledge and represented the past and the
present. Team-taught by an art historian and a Spanish literature specialist,
this interdisciplinary seminar will be of interest to students in the fields of
art history, literature, history, anthropology, and sociology among others.
Funds may be available for students and faculty members of
Consortium institutions to
travel to the Newberry to attend Consortium seminars. For more information,
please contact the Center.
All students must register for this course. To register, please call the Center for Renaissance Studies at 312-255-3514 or email renaissance@newberry.org