Oriental Prospects

A great deal of stimulating and valuable discussion (as well as some indignation and hot air) has been stimulated by Edward Said, whose provocative study of Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient appeared twenty years ago. This present book will, we believe, be recognized as a worthy addition to the many attempts that have since been made to sift the intrinsic and ingrained attitudes of West to East. The fifteen articles in Oriental Prospects: Western Literature and the Lure of the East cover literature from the Renaissance through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the modern period, some in pragmatic accounts of responses to and uses of experiences of the Orient and its cultural attitudes and artefacts, others contending more theoretically with issues that Edward Said has raised. Despite all the misunderstanding, prejudice and propaganda in the scholarly and literary depiction of the Orient still today as in the past, what emerges from this wide-range of articles is that no species of literary text or academic study can appear without risking the accusation of escapist exoticism or cultural and economic exploitation; and thus regrettably masking the essential and vital significance of the political and the real and imaginative trading between East and West.

Oriental Wells explores the manifold ways in which the East was a major source of inspiration for the British Romantic poets, who generously borrowed from the Eastern sources in their effort to reinvent the British poetic tradition. It examines the “orientalization” of Romantic poetry, using works of William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, and Walter Savage Landor. Analyzing the Romantic poets' multifaceted engagement with the East, the book raises the questions: · What led Blake to formulate his thesis that “All Religions Are One”? · Why do Coleridge's poetry and the play Osorio echo some of the passages from Wilkins' translation of The Bhagvat-Geeta as well as other prominent Eastern religious texts? · What made Southey write his “Hindu epic” The Curse of Kehama and his “Islamic” tale Thalaba, the Destroyer? · What was the exact nature of the negotiations between William Jones' Orientalism and Wordsworth's poetics as formulated in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads, The Prelude, and other poems? The book convincingly argues that the introduction of “cultural goods” from the East played a crucial role in shaping the form and substance of British Romanticism, while acknowledging that the Romantics' reception of the East was tempered by their ideological concerns and religious background.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Traditional medicine plays a crucial role in maintaining health, diagnosing diseases, and providing treatment. The World Health Organization's Global Report on Traditional and Complementary Medicine 2019 highlights the increasing recognition of traditional and complementary medicine in national health systems worldwide. With its widespread availability and growing demand, traditional medicine contributes to the goal of universal healthcare by offering accessible, safe, and effective services.In this book, the authors seek to review and summarize the history, current state, and future potential of mainstream traditional medicine worldwide, as well as promote the integration of traditional and conventional medicine, serving as a valuable reference for policymakers, academic institutions, and stakeholders. This book encompasses nine chapters, covering Ayurveda, chiropractic, European Traditional Herbal Medicine, Greco-Arab and Islamic Herbal Medicine, Homeopathy, Japanese Kampo, Korean Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Thai Medicine.

German-speaking Europe is an array of images that have emerged from varied discourses about itself and its neighbors, and “Germany and the Imagined East” revolves around the exchange of views on and in the vast construct called “the East.” The world has been divided conceptually in countless ways, but the works in this volume treat aspects of Germany as both part of and also separate from any perception of an eastern border. From the former German Democratic Republic,“East Germany,” to Österreich—whose name loses its eastern association in the English version, Austria,—the East begins within the very world of the German language. But it is also the expanse off to the right of Germany, within which essays in this collection treat such political and cultural distinctions as former Yugoslavia, Romania and Russia in Eastern Europe, or Turkey and Persia in the Near East, spreading through India to China and Japan in the Far East. With a variety of perspectives on literature, film, philosophy, architecture, music and history, these essays comprise a multidisciplinary collage that invites scholars from all departments to explore the wealth of insights German Studies has to offer on East-West relations.

Starting with the social and psychological side of the person Naipaul, one can summarise some reasonably simple discoveries that can be extracted from both his autobiographical pieces and his seemingly fictional books, published within a period of more than fifty years. Naipaul suggested that the way to approach the author is not through finding out as much as possible about the man and one could easily argue that the idea shall simply be used in conversion. One can learn more about the person when taking into account all that has been produced by the author, who is part of the person. By this means, one can extract valuable information about both person and author and thus can easily uncover some mysteries that have been established by the author/person to conceal the reality behind a fixed idea that has always played a significant role in Naipaul's life. Having studied English, Naipaul was aware of all the tools available and of the aims of literary critics and seems to have challenged these established routes for his own sake and to serve his purpose.