Mirrored Poeticity: Chiastic Structuring in Mayan Languages

Title

Mirrored Poeticity: Chiastic Structuring in Mayan Languages

Book Title

Chiasmus: The State of the Art

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Year of Publication

2020

Authors

Hull, Kerry M. (Primary)

Pagination

257–288

Publisher

BYU Studies/Book of Mormon Central

City

Provo, UT/Springville, UT

Terms of use

Items in the BMC Archive are made publicly available for non-commercial, private use. Inclusion within the BMC Archive does not imply endorsement. Items do not represent the official views of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or of Book of Mormon Central.

Bibliographic Citation

Abstract

Kerry Hull, “Mirrored Poeticity: Chiastic Structuring in Mayan Languages,” demonstrates that Mayan hieroglyphic texts feature various poetic devices, including parallelisms and coupleted forms. According to Hull, “parallelism forms the rhetorical backbone for Mesoamerican indigenous poetry.” Ancient, indigenous Maya authors and scribes also employed chiasmus, a form that features parallel lines. Hull establishes that “ancient Maya scribes incorporated chiasmus into hieroglyphic texts and particular moments of emphasis as a means of highlighting key narrative events.” In fact, these scribes engaged in “rhetorical stacking,” meaning they employed multiple rhetorical components into larger poetic units, including large, developed chiastic structures. Poetic devices and rhetorical forms that are attested in the Late Classic period, circa 250 to 900 CE, continued to thrive during the colonial period, and these forms persisted into Modern Mayan writings and languages.

Table of Contents

Book

Chiasmus: The State of the Art
Parry, Donald W.

17 Chapters

Introduction
Parry, Donald W. | pp. 5–15
Chiasmus in the Book of Genesis
Rendsburg, Gary A. | pp. 17–34
Chiastic Structuring of the Genesis Flood Story: The Art of Using Chiasm as an Effective Compositional Tool for Combining Earlier Chiastic Narratives
Scott, Steven R. | pp. 35–65
Exegesis or Eisegesis: Does Chiastic Analysis Help Us to Understand Leviticus 20?
Burnside, Jonathan | pp. 67–84
At the Intersection of Scribal Training and Theological Profundity: Chiasm as an Editorial Technique in the Primeval History and Deuteronomy
Levinson, Bernard M. | pp. 85–16
Chiasmus in the Text of Isaiah: MT Isaiah versus the Great Isaiah Scroll
Parry, Donald W. | pp. 107–127
“With strong hand and with outstretched arm” (Deuteronomy 4:34); “With outstretched hand and with strong arm” (Jeremiah 21:5): Chiasmus in Deuteronomy and Jeremiah
Seely, David Rolph | pp. 129–150
Narrating Homicide Chiastically
Welch, John W. | pp. 151–176
Chiastic Structuring of Large Texts: 2 Nephi as a Case Study
Reynolds, Noel B. | pp. 177–192
Jesus and the Roman Centurion (Matthew 8:5–13): A Window to Chiasmus and Apostolic Pedagogy
Buckwalter, H. Douglas | pp. 193–205
Rethinking the Structure of the "Farewell Discourse" (John 13–17) through a Chiastic Lens
Brouwer, Wayne | pp. 193–205
From “Linguistic Turn” and Hebrews Scholarship to Anadiplosis Iterata: The Enigma of a Structure
Gelardini, Gabriella | pp. 231–256
Mirrored Poeticity: Chiastic Structuring in Mayan Languages
Hull, Kerry M. | pp. 257–288
Chiasmus Criteria in Review
Rappleye, Neal | pp. 289–309
Truth or Cherry Picking: A Statistical Approach to Chiastic Intentionality
Edwards, Boyd F. | pp. 311–317
The Roles of Words, Phrases, and Ideas in Macro-Chiasms
Ehat, Stephen Kent | pp. 319–342
Selected Bibliography on Chiasmus, 1980–2020
Rappleye, Neal | pp. 343–358
Poetry
Parallelism
Chiasmus
Native Americans - Maya
Ancient America – Mesoamerica
Language - Mayan

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