East Asian Comparative Literature and Culture responds to the urgent need for a more complex understanding and appreciation of this region by publishing substantial comparative research on the literary and cultural traditions of East Asia and their relation to the world. We showcase original research on the methodology and practice of comparison, including intra- and trans-regional comparisons of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam; explorations of entanglements and mutual representations of Western and East Asian traditions; examinations of the relationship between the East Asian Sinographic Sphere and non-Sinographic textual cultures such as Manchu, Uyghur, and Tibetan; and multipolar comparisons that examine East Asian literatures and cultures in the light of their relations with South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, or Latin America.
The series focuses on the interpretive sciences, namely core humanities disciplines such as literature, history, religion, philosophy and thought, art history, musicology, performance or media studies. It also welcomes contributions adopting culturally-informed approaches in archeology, historical geography, anthropology, political science, sociology, or linguistics. Our historical moment demands that we as scholars combine comparative analysis with the depth of area-study-expertise and philology, theoretical acumen, and a courageous orientation towards the exploration of fundamental questions that matter to us today. This is the tall order that this book series and the authors we feature are taking on. We are confident, however, that East Asian Comparative Literature and Culture will enable a deeper mutual understanding, and successfully integrate knowledge about and approaches to different literary and cultural traditions through critical comparative examination. We see clearly the relevance of the humanities to the world we are living in now, and aim to make significant contributions to humanistic scholarship and, ultimately, to the creation of a less divisive, more equal, and better world for all.