Comparative journeys : essays on literature and religion East and West / Anthony C. Yu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yu, Anthony C., 1938-

Series:

Masters of Chinese Studies

Masters of Chinese studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature--History and criticism.

Literature.

Chinese literature--History and criticism.

Chinese literature.

Religion in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (431 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Throughout his academic career, Anthony C. Yu has employed a comparative approach to literary analysis that pays careful attention to the religious and philosophical elements of Chinese and Western texts. His mastery of both canons remains unmatched in the field, and his immense knowledge of the contexts that gave rise to each tradition supplies the foundations for ideal comparative scholarship. In these essays, Yu explores the overlap between literature and religion in Chinese and Western literature. He opens with a principal method for relating texts to religion and follows with several essays that apply this approach to single texts in discrete traditions: the Greek religion in Prometheus; Christian theology in Milton; ancient Chinese philosophical thought in Laozi; and Chinese religious syncretism in The Journey to the West. Yu's essays juxtapose Chinese and Western texts—Cratylus next to Xunzi, for example—and discuss their relationship to language and subjects, such as liberal Greek education against general education in China. He compares a specific Western text and religion to a specific Chinese text and religion. He considers the Divina Commedia in the context of Catholic theology alongside The Journey to the West as it relates to Chinese syncretism, united by the theme of pilgrimage. Yet Yu's focus isn't entirely tied to the classics. He also considers the struggle for human rights in China and how this topic relates to ancient Chinese social thought and modern notions of rights in the West. "In virtually every high-cultural system," Yu writes, "be it the Indic, the Islamic, the Sino-Japanese, or the Judeo—Christian, the literary tradition has developed in intimate—indeed, often intertwining-relation to religious thought, practice, institution, and symbolism." Comparative Journeys is a major step toward unraveling this complexity, revealing through the skilled observation of texts the extraordinary intimacy between two supposedly disparate languages and cultures.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Literature and Religion

2. New Gods and Old Order

3. Life in the Garden

4. The Order of Temptations in Paradise Regained

5. Problems and Prospects in Chinese-Western Literary Relations

6. Narrative Structure and the Problem of Chapter Nine in the Xiyouji

7. Two Literary Examples of Religious Pilgrimage

8. Religion and Literature in China

9. The Real Tripitaka Revisited

10. "Rest, Rest, Perturbed Spirit!"

11. Cratylus and the Xunzi on Names

12. Reading the Daodejing: Ethics and Politics of the Rhetoric

13. Altered Accents: A Comparative View of Liberal Education

14. Readability: Religion and the Reception of Translation

15. Enduring Change: Confucianism and the Prospect of Human Rights

16. China and the Problem of Human Rights: Ancient Verities and Modern Realities

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780231512503

0231512503

OCLC:

818855929