Human Rights and the Arts in Global Asia

John McGlynn

ISBN 10: 0739194151 / ISBN 13: 9780739194157

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, US, 2017

About this Item

This anthology of literary and dramatic works introduces writers from across Asia and the Asian diaspora. The landscapes and time periods it describes are rich and varied: a fishing village on the Padma River in Bangladesh in the early twentieth century, the slums of prewar Tokyo, Indonesia during the anti-leftist purge of the 1960s, and contemporary Tibet. Even more varied are the voices these works bring to life, which serve as testimony to the lives of those adversely impacted by poverty, rapid social change, political suppression, and armed conflict. In the end, the works in this anthology convey an attitude of spiritual and communal survival and even of hope. This anthology presents the complex dynamic between a diversity of Asian lives and the universalized concept of the individual "human" entitled to clearly specified "rights." It also asks us to think about what standards of analysis we should employ when considering a historical period in which universal human rights and civil liberties are considered secondary to the collective good, as has so often been the case when nation states are undergoing revolutionary change, waging war, or championing so-called Asian values.This book's use of the term Global Asia reflects an interest in rethinking "Asia" as more than an area determined by national borders and geography. Rather, this book portrays it as a space of movement and fluidity, where societies and individuals respond not only to their local frames of reference, but also to broader ideas and ideals. Many of the works anthologized here are the subject of scholarly analysis in the companion volume Human Rights and the Arts: Perspectives on Global Asia, also published by Lexington Books.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780739194157

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Human Rights and the Arts in Global Asia
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, US
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0739194151
• ISBN 13: 9780739194157
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 372 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This anthology of literary and dramatic works introduces writers from across Asia and the Asian diaspora. The landscapes and time periods it describes are rich and varied: a fishing village on the Padma River in Bangladesh in the early twentieth century, the slums of prewar Tokyo, Indonesia during the anti-leftist purge of the 1960s, and contemporary Tibet. Even more varied are the voices these works bring to life, which serve as testimony to the lives of those adversely impacted by poverty, rapid social change, political suppression, and armed conflict. In the end, the works in this anthology convey an attitude of spiritual and communal survival and even of hope. This anthology presents the complex dynamic between a diversity of Asian lives and the universalized concept of the individual “human” entitled to clearly specified “rights.” It also asks us to think about what standards of analysis we should employ when considering a historical period in which universal human rights and civil liberties are considered secondary to the collective good, as has so often been the case when nation states are undergoing revolutionary change, waging war, or championing so-called Asian values. This book’s use of the term Global Asia reflects an interest in rethinking “Asia” as more than an area determined by national borders and geography. Rather, this book portrays it as a space of movement and fluidity, where societies and individuals respond not only to their local frames of reference, but also to broader ideas and ideals. Many of the works anthologized here are the subject of scholarly analysis in the companion volume Human Rights and the Arts: Perspectives on Global Asia, also published by Lexington Books.

About the Authors

Bushra Rehman grew up in Corona, Queens. She is co-editor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism, and author of the novel Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion, the poetry collection Marianna’s Beauty Salon, and the dark comedy Corona, one of the New York Public Library’s favorite books about NYC.

Jooyeon Rhee is Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature at Penn State University. She is the author of The Novel in Transition: Gender and Literature in Early Colonial Korea (2019) and a co-editor of Gender and Food in Contemporary East Asia (2021).