The Mexican Dream, or, The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations

The Mexican Dream, Or, The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations
Author J.M.G. Le Clézio
Original title Le Rêve mexicain ou la pensée interrompue
Translator Teresa Lavender Fagan
Country France
Language French translated into English
Subject Mesoamerican History
Publisher University of Chicago Press (translation)
Publication date
 1965
Published in English
 1993
Media type Print
Pages 221 pp
ISBN 978-0-226-11002-8
OCLC 27814151
972/.018 20
LC Class F1230 .L3413 1993

The Mexican Dream, Or, The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations is an English translation of an essay written in French by J. M. G. Le Clézio.

Contents

Subjects

Aim

In the essay, Le Clézio conducts an inquiry into the brutal disappearance of the indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica in the 16th century, particularly the end of the Mexican civilization at the hands of the Spanish conquistadors. The author analyses the personalities of characters such as Hernán Cortés, La Malinche, Moctezuma II, Cuauhtémoc, and other key players in the conquest of Mesoamerica. He refers extensively to the descriptions offered by Bernal Díaz del Castillo in his Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España in analysing the events. He imagines what might have happened if the native populations had not been reduced to silence by brutality, and what their impact on western civilization might have been. Understanding that the West holds both economic and cultural sway over the contemporary world because of the colonization of America, he wonders how the cultural life of Mesoamerica – particularly that of the Aztecs – would have evolved if the arrival of the Europeans had not decimated the indigenous socieites through war, disease and slavery.[2]

Publication history/Editions

11 editions published between 1988 and 2004 in 5 languages and held by 835 libraries worldwide [3]

First French Edition

second French Edition

other French Edition

Also published in French under Le Clézio, J.M.G. (1992). Le Rêve mexicain. Paris: Gallimard Folio. p. 273. ISBN 978-2-07-032680-8. 

First English Edition

Second English Edition

I am delighted—but not at all surprised!—that Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. When I read Le rêve mexicain—The Mexican Dream—for the first time, I was transported by Le Clézio’s language and message. The author imagined how the thought of early Indian civilizations might have evolved if not for the interruption of European conquest. And how our own civilization might have been different had we had the continued input of such advanced, now vanished, peoples[4]
— Teresa Lavender Fagan

Publishers résumé

to French lang. Ed. "Le rêve mexicain ou la pensée interrompue"

French

:"Au cours du mois de mars 1517, les ambassadeurs de Moctezuma, seigneur de Mexico-Tenochtitlan, accueillent le navire de Hernán Cortés et cette rencontre initie une des plus terribles aventures du monde, qui s'achève par l'abolition de la civilisation indienne du Mexique, de sa pensée, de sa foi, de son art, de son savoir, de ses lois"
— Gallimard ;Original French text from the back-cover of the book "Le rêve mexicain ou la pensée interrompue"[5]

English

"During the month of March 1517, the ambassadors of Moctezuma , Lord of Mexico-Tenochtitlan are taken on board the ship of Hernán Cortés and their meeting initiates one of the most terrible adventures of the world, which ends with the extinction of the Indian civilization in Mexico along with their ideas, their religions,their arts, what they knew and their legal system".[5]
— Gallimard text to "Le rêve mexicain ou la pensée interrompue", Translated free from French

Reviews

Le Figaro and Kirkus Reviews reviewed the book.[6]

The University of Chicago Press

"In an unprecedented way, his book takes us into the dream that was the religion of the Aztecs, which in its own apocalyptic visions anticipated the coming of the Spanish conquerors. Here the dream of the conquistadores rises beforeus, too, the glimmering idea of gold drawing Europe into the Mexican dream. Against the religion and thought of the Aztecs and the Tarascans and the Europeans in Mexico, Le Clézio also shows us those of the "barbarians" of the north,the nomadic Indians beyond the pale of the Aztec frontier"
— The University of Chicago Press".[7]

References

  1. ↑ "The Mexican Dream Or, The Interrupted Thought of Amerindian Civilizations". The University of Chicago Press. 1993. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  2. ↑ "The Mexican Dream by JMG Le Clézio". Archived in Books for the News. University of Chicago Press. 2008-10-09. Retrieved 10 December 2008. Teresa Lavender Fagan said"I am delighted—but not at all surprised!—that Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. When I read Le rêve mexicain—The Mexican Dream—for the first time, I was transported by Le Clézio’s language and message. The author imagined how the thought of early Indian civilizations might have evolved if not for the interruption of European conquest. And how our own civilization might have been different had we had the continued input of such advanced, now vanished, peoples."
  3. ↑ "Most widely held works about J.-M. G Le Clézio". OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
  4. ↑
  5. 1 2 "Le rêve mexicain ou La pensée interrompue" (in French). La Procure intègre le groupe Le Monde. 1993. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  6. ↑ The Mexican Dream, Or, The. Google. Retrieved 27 November 2008.
  7. ↑ "The Mexican Dream book by Le Clezio". Contributed by Mario González-Román. The University of Chicago Press. 2008-10-10. Retrieved 11 December 2008. "in an unprecedented way, his book takes us into the dream2
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