Book of the Fourth World: Reading the Native Americas through their Literature - Hardcover

Brotherston, Gordon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521307600 ISBN 13: 9780521307604

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1993

Synopsis

The Book of the Fourth World offers detailed analyses of texts that range far back into the centuries of civilised life from what is now Latin- and Anglo-America. At the time of its 'discovery', the American continent was identified as the Fourth World of our planet. In the course of just a few centuries its original inhabitants, though settled there for millennia and countable in many millions, have come to be perceived as a marginal if not entirely dispensable factor in the continent's destiny. Today the term has been taken up again by its native peoples, to describe their own world: both its threatened present condition, and its political history, which stretches back thousands of years before Columbus. In order to explore the literature of this world, Brotherston uses primary sources that have traditionally been ignored because they have not conformed to Western definitions of oral and written literature, such as the scrolls of the Algonkin, the knotted strings (Quipus) of the Inca, Navajo dry-paintings and the encyclopedic pages of Meso-America's screenfold books.

About this title

Review

"Presenting comparisons and commonalities among geographically diverse groups, Brotherston offers intriguing and at times unexpected interpretations of temporal and spatial representations, such as quatrefoil maps, the quincunx, and year counts, in varying textual forms....In a final chapter, Brotherston grapples with the fascinating problems encountered in the translation process and with the modifications developed in the meshing of different literary traditions. He presents diverse and interesting examples, such as native transformations of Aesop's tales in Nahuatl, and Cinderella in mapuche and Zuni contexts." Frances Berdan, Ethno History

Book Description

The Book of the Fourth World offers detailed analyses of texts that range far back into the centuries of civilised life from what is now Latin- and Anglo-America. In order to explore the literature of this world, Brotherston uses primary sources that have traditionally been ignored because they have not conformed to Western definitions of oral and written literature.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521307600
• ISBN 13: 9780521307604
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 494