Product details
- ISBN 9781438497778
- Weight: 599g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 May 2024
- Publisher: State University of New York Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Draws on Nahua concepts to explore Nahua literary production and contributions to cultural activism from the 1980s to the present.
2025 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
Silver Medal Co-Winner of the 2025 International Latino Book Awards, in the category of Best Academic Themed Book, College Level
The Serpent's Plumes analyzes contemporary Nahua cultural production, principally bilingual Nahuatl-Spanish xochitlajtoli, or "poetry," written from the 1980s to the present. Adam W. Coon draws on Nahua perspectives as a decolonizing theoretical framework to argue that Nahua writers deploy unique worldviews-namely, ixtlamatilistli ("knowledge with the face," which highlights the value of personal experiences); yoltlajlamikilistli ("knowledge with the heart," which underscores the importance of affective intelligence); and tlaixpan ("that which is in front," which presents the past as lying ahead of a subject rather than behind). The views of ixtlamatilistli, yoltlajlamikilistli, and tlaixpan are key in Nahua struggles and effectively challenge those who attempt to marginalize Native knowledge production.
Adam W. Coon is Associate Professor of Latin American Studies and Spanish at the University of Minnesota Morris.
