Encountering Buddhism in Twentieth-Century British and American Literature

Encountering Buddhism in Twentieth-Century British and American Literature explores the ways in which twentieth-century literature has been influenced by Buddhism, and has been, in turn, a major factor in bringing about Buddhism's increasing spread and influence in the West. Focussing on Britain and the United States, Buddhism's influence on a range of key literary texts will be examined in the context of those societies' evolving modernity. Writers discussed include T. S. Eliot, Hermann Hesse, Virginia Woolf, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, J. D. Salinger, Iris Murdoch, Maxine Hong Kingston. This book brings together for the first time a series of context-rich interpretations that demonstrate the importance of literature in this ongoing cultural change in Britain and the United States.

Alison Winch is Visiting Lecturer in English Literature at Middlesex University, UK.

Lawrence Normand is Principal Lecturer in English Literature at Middlesex University, UK.