Asian Literatures: Comparison from Calcutta to Kyoto

This roundtable discussion will ask: How can scholars of various linguistic, geographical, and historical areas in Asia come together under the rubric of comparison to build a cohesive discipline? How can literature provide a basis for discussion among scholars of Asia? How can comparison as an intra-disciplinary mode help scholars to discover new ways of thinking about Asia? Visiting scholars participating in the discussion include Keller Kimbrough (Medieval Japanese, University of Colorado at Boulder), Michael Emmerich (Modern and Premodern Japanese, Princeton University ), G. S Sahota (Indian Literary and Intellectual History, UCSC) and Anne Murphy (Modern Punjabi Literature and History, University of British Columbia). This event is coordinated by the Asian Languages and Cultures Graduate Students Organization and co-sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature’s “Year of Comparison.”