Linguistic and cultural continuity through the symbolic representation of the naj 'house' in contemporary Mayan poetry
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Wubbold, Manya
issued: 2015-03-23T16:21:50Z
issued: 2015
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: This interdisciplinary study (linguistic and literary) is based on a corpus of contemporary Mayan poetry that has been written in Peninsular (Yucatec) Maya and translated into Spanish by the authors. These particular poets were selected for this investigation because they have all participated in, or were influenced by the Resurgence in Mayan contemporary literature. And as writer/activists they write to promote and disseminate Mayan language and culture through poetry. All of the poems were selected for this corpus due to their rich depiction of Mayan cultural beliefs and symbolism and because they all feature the concept of naj ‘house’ as an essential and unifying theme. As the naj embodies (physically and metaphorically) the heart and/or center of Mayan Creation and re-Creation and is a recurrent conception in both pre-Colombian and contemporary Mayan literature, it is a key symbol utilized by these poets in reference to Mayan linguistic and cultural continuity. In addition to the naj, there are two other essential symbols―the three-stone hearth and the Ceiba or Mayan sacred tree―that unite these poems into a cohesive narrative. Like the naj, the three-stone hearth and the Ceiba are important icons in Mayan symbology representing the process of cultural generation and regeneration. By combining a linguistic (semantic) and literary analysis of the Mayan version of each poem, this investigation reveals information on how cultural symbolism is conceptualized and communicated through language and poetic expression unique to Mayan culture. In particular, this study focuses on the poets’ utilization of polysemous terminology and the poetic devices of difrasismo and parallelism to express complex networks of symbolic meaning. As this linguistic and poetic expression reflects structural aspects of the language as well as literary tropes recurrent in ancient (glyphic and pictorial) and contemporary works, it demonstrates a conceptual, linguistic, and literary continuity s…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/52463
note: LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL CONTINUITY THROUGH THE SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION OF THE NAJ ‘HOUSE’ IN CONTEMPORARY MAYAN POETRY by Manya Wubbold B.A., Portland State University, 1998 M.A., Portland State University, 2002 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Hispanic Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) March 2015 © Manya Wubbold, 2015 ii Abstract This interdisciplinary study (linguistic and literary) is based on a corpus of contemporary Mayan poetry that has been written in Peninsular (Yucatec) Maya and translated into Spanish by the authors. These particular poets were selected for this investigation because they have all participated in, or were influenced by the Resurgence in Mayan contemporary literature. And as writer/activists they write to promote and disseminate Mayan language and culture through poetry. All of the poems were selected for this corpus due to their rich depiction of Mayan cultural beliefs and symbolism and because they all feature the concept of naj ‘house’ as an essential and unifying theme. As the naj embodies (physically and metaphorically) the heart and/or center of Mayan Creation and re-Creation and is a recurrent conception in both pre-Colombian and contemporary Mayan literature, it is a key symbol utilized by these poets in reference to Mayan linguistic and cultural continuity. In addition to the naj, there are two other essential symbols―the three-stone hearth and the Ceiba or Mayan sacred tree―that unite these poems into a cohesive narrative. Like the naj, the three-stone hearth and the Ceiba are important icons in Mayan symbology representing the process of cultural generation and regeneration. By combining a linguistic (semantic) and literary analysis of the Mayan version of each poem, this investigation reveals information on how cultural symbolism is conceptualized and communicated through language and poe…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2015-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0167150
language: eng
degree discipline: Hispanic Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/52463