 | Cosmopolitan Asia: Littoral Epistemologies of the Global South Subjects: Area Studies; Humanities; Social Sciences; Asian Studies; Cultural Studies; Anthropology; Philosophy; Philosophy of Human Nature; Philosophy of Social Science; One key concept in the large body of scholarship concerned with theorizing social relations is the idea of 'cosmopolitanism'. This book unpacks the idea of cosmopolitanism through the linked knowledges of the Global South. It brings into dialogue an inter-disciplinary team of local and transnational scholars who examine various temporal, cultural, spatial and political contexts in countries as different, yet connected, as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, Bangladesh, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The book also considers a wide range of subjects - present and historical, real, as represented in literature and in theatre, and as theorized in philosophy - across these diverse contexts, but always focusing on regions and places where inter-Asian intermingling has taken place. The conclusions arrived at are varied and considerably enrich social theorizing. The book reveals a cosmopolitanism that is much more specifically Asian than the cosmopolitanism usually associated with the West, demonstrates how concepts of 'nation', 'local' and 'globalization' play out in practice in Asian settings, and re-examines concepts such as migration, diaspora, and the construction of identities. The book has much to offer scholars engaged in history, literary studies, anthropology and cultural studies. Sharmani Patricia Gabriel is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. Fernando Rosa is a researcher in the Department of English at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. |
