Nicholas A. Hopkins's Books

The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas

By: Robert M. Laughlin,Nicholas A. Hopkins,Andrés Brizuela Casimir

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The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas

By: Robert M. Laughlin,Nicholas A. Hopkins,Andrés Brizuela Casimir

The Ch’ol Maya who live in the western Mexican state of Chiapas are direct descendants of the Maya of the Classic period. Exploring their history and culture, volume editor Karen Bassie-Sweet and the other authors assembled here uncover clear continuity between contemporary Maya rituals and beliefs and their ancient counterparts. With evocative and thoughtful essays by leading scholars of Maya culture, The Ch’ol Maya of Chiapas, the first collection to focus fully on the Ch’ol Maya, takes readers deep into ancient caves and reveals new dimensions of Ch’ol cosmology. In contemporary Ch’ol culture the contributors find a wealth of historical material that they then interweave with archaeological data to yield surprising and illuminating insights. The colonial and twentieth-century descendants of the Postclassic period Ch’ol and Lacandon Ch’ol, for instance, provide a window on the history and conquest of the early Maya. Several authors examine Early Classic paintings in the Ch’ol ritual cave known as Jolja that document ancient cave ceremonies not unlike Ch’ol rituals performed today, such as petitioning a cave-dwelling mountain spirit for health, rain, and abundant harvests. Other essays investigate deities identified with caves, mountains, lightning, and meteors to trace the continuity of ancient Maya beliefs through the centuries, in particular the ancient origin of contemporary rituals centering on the Ch’ol mountain deity Don Juan. An appendix containing three Ch’ol folktales and their English translations rounds out the volume. Charting paths literal and figurative to earlier trade routes, pre-Columbian sites, and ancient rituals and beliefs, The Ch’ol Maya of Chiapas opens a fresh, richly informed perspective on Maya culture as it has evolved and endured over the ages.

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Page Count

275

Publisher

University of Oklahoma Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0806149264

ISBN 13

9780806149264

Chuj (Mayan) Narratives

Folklore, History, and Ethnography from Northwestern Guatemala

By: Nicholas A. Hopkins

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Chuj (Mayan) Narratives

Folklore, History, and Ethnography from Northwestern Guatemala

By: Nicholas A. Hopkins

The Chuj of northwestern Guatemala are among the least studied groups of the Mayan family, and their relative isolation has preserved a strong indigenous tradition of storytelling. In Chuj (Mayan) Narratives, Nicholas Hopkins analyzes six narratives that illustrate the breadth of the Chuj storytelling tradition, from ancient mythology to current events and from intimate tales of local affairs to borrowed stories, such as an adaptation of Oedipus Rex. The book illustrates the broad range of stories people tell each other, from mythological and legendary topics to procedural discussions and stories borrowed from European and African societies. Hopkins provides context for the narratives by introducing the reader to Chuj culture and history, conveying important events as described by indigenous participants. These events include customs and practices related to salt production as well as the beginnings of the disastrous civil war of the last century, which resulted in the destruction of several villages from which the narratives in this study originated. Hopkins also provides an analytical framework for the strategies of the storytellers and presents the narratives with Chuj text and English translation side-by-side. Chuj (Mayan) Narratives analyzes the strategies of storytelling in an innovative framework applicable to other corpora and includes sufficient grammatical information to function as an introduction to the Chuj language. The stories illustrate the persistence of Classic Maya themes in contemporary folk literature, making the book significant to Mesoamericanists and Mayanists and an essential resource for students and scholars of Maya linguistics and literary traditions, storytelling, and folklore.

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Page Count

258

Publisher

University Press of Colorado

Published Date

ISBN 10

1646421302

ISBN 13

9781646421305

Maya Narrative Arts

By: Karen Bassie-Sweet,Nicholas A. Hopkins

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Maya Narrative Arts

By: Karen Bassie-Sweet,Nicholas A. Hopkins

In Maya Narrative Arts, authors Karen Bassie-Sweet and Nicholas A. Hopkins present a comprehensive and innovative analysis of the principles of Classic Maya narrative arts and apply those principles to some of the major monuments of the site of Palenque. They demonstrate a recent methodological shift in the examination of art and inscriptions away from minute technical issues and toward the poetics and narratives of texts and the relationship between texts and images. Bassie-Sweet and Hopkins show that both visual and verbal media present carefully planned narratives, and that the two are intimately related in the composition of Classic Maya monuments. Text and image interaction is discussed through examples of stelae, wall panels, lintels, benches, and miscellaneous artifacts including ceramic vessels and codices. Bassie-Sweet and Hopkins consider the principles of contrast and complementarity that underlie narrative structures and place this study in the context of earlier work, proposing a new paradigm for Maya epigraphy. They also address the narrative organization of texts and images as manifested in selected hieroglyphic inscriptions and the accompanying illustrations, stressing the interplay between the two. Arguing for a more holistic approach to Classic Maya art and literature, Maya Narrative Arts reveals how close observation and reading can be equally if not more productive than theoretical discussions, which too often stray from the very data that they attempt to elucidate. The book will be significant for Mesoamerican art historians, epigraphers, linguists, and archaeologists.

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Page Count

322

Publisher

University Press of Colorado

Published Date

ISBN 10

1607327422

ISBN 13

9781607327424

Walk in Shadows

By: Nicholas Kaufmann,Nick Kaufmann,Brian A. Hopkins

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Walk in Shadows

By: Nicholas Kaufmann,Nick Kaufmann,Brian A. Hopkins

A Mafia assassin whose victims won't stay dead. A jewel thief looking for his biggest score yet in the crowded cemeteries of Prague. A teenage street gang adjusting to a terrifying new world. A man trapped in the back seat of a New York City taxi with a madman at the wheel. These and other lost souls wait for you in critically acclaimed author Nicholas Kaufmann's debut collection, featuring nine previously published and two never-before-seen tales of suspense and terror. Welcome to Quick City. Be glad you're just passing through.

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Page Count

262

Publisher

Wildside Press LLC

Published Date

ISBN 10

1930997361

ISBN 13

9781930997363

How to Begin Studying English Literature

By: Nicholas Marsh

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How to Begin Studying English Literature

By: Nicholas Marsh

How to Begin Studying English Literature has established itself as one of the most successful and popular introductory student guides in the field. This fourth edition has been fully revised and expanded throughout, and now includes more examples and commentary on texts as well as a third essay-writing chapter, tackling critics and context. This book shows the reader how to approach novels, plays and poems, featuring chapters on themes, characters, structure, style, irony and analysis. In addition, sections on revision, exams and further development of study skills make this book an invaluable companion for anyone beginning to study English literature.

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