Invitation to World Literature
Popol Vuh Popol Vuh – Connections

In the Images of World Literature slideshow, you saw ancient images inspired by Popol Vuh. Here at Connections, you can find modern interpretations, analyses, and performances of the story.
Movies/Popular Interpretations/TV/Performance
- German film director Werner Herzog used Popol Vuh to create the first chapter of his 1971 movie Fata Morgana.
http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Darkness-Morgana-Eugen-Montagnes/dp/B000059PPP/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1272554131&sr=1-1 - Performance artist Cherrie Moraga’s play Heart of the Earth: A Popol Vuh Story retells the creation story from a feminist point of view.
http://www.cherriemoraga.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49:heart-of-the-earth-a-popol-vuh-story&catid=43&Itemid=58
In Moraga’s book, The Hungry Woman, she discusses Popol Vuh.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Hungry-Woman/Cherrie-L-Moraga/e/9780970534408 - Listen to free podcasts about the Popol Vuh from Dr. Rex Koontz of the University of Houston.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-history-podcasts-popol/id139883719 - See images from Patricia Amlin’s 1988 movie Popol Vuh. http://www.nativeamericanfilms.org/popolvuh.html
Learn more about the film.
http://www.berkeleymedia.com/catalog/berkeleymedia/films
/native_american_studies
/popol_vuh_the_creation_myth_of_the_maya_spanish_version
Watch part of the film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMMo0-kEFis - See Mayan archeological sites and hear a discussion of the collapse of their civilization in program eight from the series Out of the Past. http://www.learner.org/resources/series45.html
Art
- See the exhibits at the Museo Popol Vuh in Guatemala (in Spanish).
http://www.popolvuh.ufm.edu/index.php/P%C3%A1gina_Principal - Mayan Artist Carlotta Giangualano has paintings inspired by Popol Vuh.
http://www.mayamystics.com - Ancient Mayan illustrations of scenes from the story, painted on vases, are on display at Maya-Archeology.org.
http://www.maya-archaeology.org/Gods_Mayan_pantheon
/Mayapolychromevase_rollout.html
Music
- Ecuatorial, written in 1934 by the early avant-garde composer Edgard Varèse, sets passages from Popol Vuh to music.
http://www.amazon.com/Edgard-Var%C3%A8se-Offrandes-Int%C3%A9grales-Ecuatorial/dp/B00122N3BS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1272554760&sr=8-1 - The German band Popol Vuh formed in 1969; their first album, Affenstunde, reflects the band’s interest in the story.
http://www.amazon.com/Affenstunde-Popol-Vuh/dp/B0001ZWKB6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1272554896&sr=8-1-catcorr - Hear a sound composition based on Popol Vuh by German composer Götz Naleppa.
http://www.naleppa.eu/soundcomposition2.html
Books/Articles
- Allen J. Christenson, Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya. The website has links to PDF editions, including one with the original orthography of the text.
http://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/index.html - Louis L’Amour, The Haunted Mesa, 1988. The popular author based the myths and legends in his novel on the Popol Vuh.
http://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Mesa-Louis-LAmour/dp/0553270222/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272553845&sr=8-1 - Inga Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spanish in Yucatan, 1517-1570, 2003.
http://www.amazon.com/Ambivalent-Conquests-Spaniard-1517-1570-Cambridge/dp/0521527317/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273588608&sr=1-1 - Michael D. Coe, Breaking the Maya Code, 1999.
http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Maya-Code-Michael-Coe/dp/0500281335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273588628&sr=1-1 - Michael D. Coe, The Maya, 7th ed., 2005.
http://www.amazon.com/Maya-Seventh-Ancient-Peoples-Places/dp/0500285055/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273588642&sr=1-2 - Arthur Demarest, Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization, 2005.
http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Maya-Rainforest-Civilization-Societies/dp/0521533902/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273588657&sr=1-1 - Linda Schiele, Mary Miller, and Justin Kerr, The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art, 1992.
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Kings-Dynasty-Ritual-Maya/dp/0807612782/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1273588676&sr=1-3-fkmr0