Studied by 15 peopleSurrealism
extreme realism which emphasizes subconscious creativity and uses shock therapy (influenced by drug culture)
Existentialism
The doctrine that existence precedes essence - individual beliefs supersede pre-existing philosophy
synodic cycle
temporal interval for an object to reappear at some point; two successive conjunctions with the sun and earth aligned in the same linear order
Aztec Calendar Stone
symbolic portrayal of the four disasters that led to the demise of the four prior universes in aztec cosmology - hieroglyphic layout of how Aztecs measured time
When was the sun stone carved and to whom was it dedicated?
carved in 1479 during the reign of the 6th monarch dedicated to the sun god
What was the stone carved from and how big is it?
piece of basalt weighing 24 metric tons - 12 feet in diameter and four feet thick
where is the sun stone displayed?
National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park
what is depicted in the sun stone?
sun gods at the center representing past and present eras, the suns are circled by rings showing aztec cycles of time
what happened to earliest inhabitants of the earth?
devoured by jaguars
what caused the demise of the second sun?
great winds
how was the third sun destroyed?
fiery rain
how was the fourth sun destroyed?
massive flood
fifth sun
current era of decline and testing by the gods
3 main aztec gods
Huitzilopochtili (hummingbird wizard), Tezcatlipoca (smoking mirror), and Quetzalcoatl (sovereign plumed serpent)
Chinampas
areas of cultivation with soil dug out of the lake and planted between willow trees (fertile crops)
native language of the Aztecs
Nahuatl (pictographs)
valuable trade items
jade and quetzal
When was Paz born and where
March 31, 1914 in Mexico city
who was Paz’s father affiliated with?
revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata
How old was Paz when he finished his first book?
19
Where did Paz go to college?
studied law at the national autonomous university of mexico and took a cultural attache to France
What work solidied Paz’s reputation?
the labyrinth of solitude
what is Paz’s first poetic work?
Piedra de sol (sunstone)
Paz’s wife
Marie-jose Tramini
What honor did Paz recieve?
first Mexican to receive the nobel prize for literature in 1990
when did Paz die?
1998 - spinal cancer in MX city
Piedra de sol
584 lines reflecting Venus’ 584-day synodic orbit and showing the cycle of time
what does the lack of verbs in Piedra de sol represent?
thoughts are never completed and the effect is hypnotic
what does the repetition in Piedra de sol represent?
causes poem to fold back on itself so the speaker cannot distinguish the past from the present or the future (imitative of the indigenous concept of circular time)
how paz views history
through its indian past - humans must find salvation within each other (the aim of creation is a regenerative process)
what does the sunstone transcend?
the part of the mexican psychological inclination to be the ‘instinctive nihilist’
Note
Flashcard