Reading Emptiness: Buddhism and Literature

By Jefferson Humphries

Concludes that the closest thing in Western culture to the Middle Way of Buddhism is not any sort of theory or philosophy, but the practice of literature.

Reading Emptiness connects ancient Buddhist attitudes and ideas with postmodern theory and aesthetics, concluding that the closest thing in Western culture to the Middle Way of Buddhism is not any sort of theory or philosophy, but the practice of literature. The book draws on scholarship and criticism in literary theory, philosophy, and science to speculate about the possible common ground between literary and Buddhist practices, aiming not so much to elucidate the ancient traditions of Buddhism as to seek ways in which literature might be integrated into a truly Western practice of Buddhism that would remain philosophically true to its Eastern roots.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791442624
• ISBN13: 9780791442623
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher