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Beyond East and West : a story of civilization through the great epics / Suchethana Swaroop ; translated by N. S. Raghavan

Author
Swaroop, Suchethana
Published
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019.
Copyright Date
©2019
Physical Description
xviii, 293 pages ; 23 cm

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Contents
Not an introduction -- Virgil: the ideal poet -- Dante: an unveiling of Europe -- The unprecedented pair -- On Milton -- "Pṛthivyā iva Mānadaṇḍaḥ" -- The ideal character -- The epic tradition and Milton -- The culture that speaks -- Changing cultures and living traditions -- To Homer again -- The first epic -- Kalidasa's prayer -- Translations and versions -- Breaking and making tradition -- The modernists -- The final shape -- "Kālasya niścayaḥ" -- The sublimity of Kalidasa - "Play on, pressing to the bosom...!" - Beyond East and West - Towards a new beginning.
Summary
This volume is a cross-cultural study of the evolution of civilization. Drawing its material and inspiration from literature and culture, it looks at the achievements of humankind as a single imaginative experience. The book examines how traditions of poetry and literature have shaped cultures, societies and civilizations, and their inter-relatedness. Analyzing stereotypes in Asia and Europe, the author raises questions fundamental to our perceptions of culture, democracy, and language. He throws light on dominant languages and languages cast aside by the tides of history, and attributes the status of English as a 'world language' to ideas propagated in the great epics of the West -- particularly Roman -- and the poetic heritage shaped by them. Discussing the fallout of that dream on other cultures and 'non-technical' languages of the world, this book investigates questions of legitimacy and desirability of a single language or culture becoming universal. A sensitive and nuanced work, it promises a good read for general readers as well as researchers interested in world literature, comparative literature, sociology and cultural studies, in the interaction between science and art, and in the forces that shape the world order.
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ISBN
0815392575 hardcover
9780815392576 hardcover
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 27686495