This is a collection of 46 essays by specialists in Asian literature, who offer a wide range of possibilities for introducing Asian literature to English-speaking students. It is intended to help in promoting multicultural education.

The material in this study is covered by Myron L. Cohen on religion and family organization in China; John R. Bowen on family, kinship, and Islam in Indonesia; Robert W. Hefner on hierarchy and stratification in Java; and Nancy Rosenberger on gender roles in Japan. Further material is provided by William W. Kelly on rural society in Japan; Theodore C. Bestor on urban life in Japan; Stephen R. Smith on the family in Japan; Doranne Jacobson on gender relations in India; Lawrence A. Babb on religion in India; Owen M. Lynch on stratification, inequality, and the caste system in India; Laurell Kendall on changing gender relations in Korea; Andrew G. Walder on comparative revolution in China and Vietnam, Maoism, and the sociology of work in China and Japan; Moni Nag on the comparative demography of China, Japan, and India; and Helen Hardacre on the new religions of Japan. Other contributors offering information through case studies are Hiroshi Ishida on stratification and mobility in Japan; Robert C. Liebman on work and education compared in Japan and the US; Joseph W. Elder on education, urban society, urban problems, and industrial society in India; Andrew J. Nathan on totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and democracy in China; Jean C. Oi on mobilisation and participation in China; Edwin A. Winckler on political development in Taiwan; Carl H. Lande on political parties and representation in the Philippines ; Clark N. Neher on political development and political participation in Thailand; and Benedict R. O'G. Anderson on political culture, the military, and authoritarianism in Indonesia. The final chapters of this work include studies by Stephen Philip Cohen on the military in India and Pakistan; Paul R. Brass on democracy and political participation in India; T.J. Pempel on Japanese democracy and political culture, political parties and representation, and bureaucracy in Japan; Han-kyo Kim on political development in South Korea; and Thomas G. Rawski on the economies of China and Japan.

A guide aimed at introducing students to the history of Asia in conjunction with Western and world history.

This book represents the first ever published introduction to the comparative study of traditional Asian literatures, embracing three vast literary zones: Arab-Islamic, Indo-South East Asian and Sino-Far Eastern. The aim of the book is to outline the main properties of Asian literatures in the period of 'reflective traditionalism' (the early centuries CE to the first half of the 19th century), when the creation of a vast body of aesthetically significant works was coupled with the emergence of literary self-awareness: when the nature of the creative process, the poetics and functions of the literary works, and the ways of their influence on the reader were thoroughly comprehended and committed to writing for the first time. The book is intended for specialists in Asian literatures, comparative literature, and literary theory, and for students of these topics.

The short story is moving from relative neglect to a central position in the curriculum; as a teaching tool, it offers students a route into many complex areas, including critical theory, gender studies, postcolonialism and genre. This book offers a practical guide to the short story in the classroom, covering all these fields and more.

What is literature? The question is difficult enough in itself. However, the West has made any hope of a proper answer literally untenable. It has provincialized literature into its own neighbourhood. This book brings together perspectives from both non-Western cultures and minority cultures within a supposed West (normally downsized to represent a part of Europe and the USA). Also considered, as parts of the problem, are various literature-related asymmetries such as global awards and translation. The prime concern of the book is awakening its readers to the fact that, incredibly but truly enough, literature in its total, all-human realization, is something yet to be discovered. It, thus, will especially appeal to literary scholars, making them conscious of the fact that their literary studies actually take into account only a fragment of literature, as well as university students of literature, in the hope it might prevent them from becoming heirs to their professors.