Examining the works of authors ranging from Herman Melville to Margaret Atwood, John Whalen-Bridge shows that some books are more political than others, that some political novelists are more skillful than others, and that readers must allow for basic working distinctions between politics and aesthetics if we are to make useful judgments about which political novels to read, and why.

Norman Mailer s Later Fiction considers five works - Ancient Evenings (1983), Tough Guys Don t Dance (1984), Harlot's Ghost (1991), The Gospel According to the Son (1997), The Castle in the Forest (2007) - to examine, for the first time in a full volume, Mailer s literary maturity. Essays from esteemed scholars, Mailer's wife, andeditor, discuss Mailer s modes of cultural critique, connecting his political, theological, sexual, and aesthetic insights. This book will be essential reading for all Mailer scholars and offers provocative insights in such areas as postmodern American writing,...

The US seems to be becoming a Buddhist country. Celebrity converts, the popularity of the Dalai Lama, motifs in popular movies, and mala beads at the mall indicate an increasing inculcation of Buddhism into the American consciousness, even if a relatively small percentage of the population actually describe themselves as Buddhists. This book looks beyond the trendier manifestations of Buddhism in America to look at distinctly American Buddhist ways of life--ways of perceiving and understanding. John Whalen-Bridge and Gary Storhoff have organized this unique collection in accordance with the...

Extreme conditions lead to extreme protest, and contradictions between the Buddhist-inflected rhetoric of non-harm and the agony of self-immolation have been accounted for variously. The interpreters create descriptions that reflect, select, and sometimes deflect the reality of the burning corpse, calling attention to a certain place and time. In this volume, John Whalen-Bridge applies Kenneth Burke's interpretive suggestions to the phenomenon of a Buddhist-inflected self-immolation movement. Tibet on Fire considers the possibility that the self-burnings could be interpreted as an extension...

Leading scholars working on Buddhism and politics in South and Southeast Asia add to current discussions regarding 'Engaged Buddhism' and the recent work on protests. The writers have mostly established themselves in their fields, offering a diverse approach and country-by-country coverage.

Norman Mailer s Later Fiction considers five works - Ancient Evenings (1983), Tough Guys Don t Dance (1984), Harlot's Ghost (1991), The Gospel According to the Son (1997), The Castle in the Forest (2007) - to examine, for the first time in a full volume, Mailer s literary maturity. Essays from esteemed scholars, Mailer's wife, andeditor, discuss Mailer s modes of cultural critique, connecting his political, theological, sexual, and aesthetic insights. This book will be essential reading for all Mailer scholars and offers provocative insights in such areas as postmodern American writing,...

In an increasingly global world where convenient modes of travel have opened the door to international and intraregional tourism and brought together people from different religious and ethnic communities, religious journeying in India has become the site of evolving and often paradoxical forms of self-construction. Through ethnographic reflections, the contributors to this volume explore religious and nonreligious motivations for religious travel in India and show how pilgrimages, missionary travel, the exportation of cultural art forms, and leisure travel among coreligionists are...