Readings of the Vessantara Jataka

Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-0-231-16038-4
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 1000 g

Reihe: Columbia Readings of Buddhist Literature

The Vessantara Jataka tells the story of Prince Vessantara, who attained the Perfection of Generosity by giving away his fortune, his children, and his wife. Prince Vessantara was the penultimate rebirth as a human of the future Gotama Buddha, and his extreme charity has been represented and reinterpreted in texts, sermons, rituals, and art throughout South and Southeast Asia, and beyond.

This anthology undertakes sophisticated literary, anthropological, and art historical analyses of the text and its ethics of giving, understanding of attachment and nonattachment, depiction of the trickster, and unique performative qualities. Contributors to the volume include well-respected anthropologists, textual scholars in religious and Buddhist studies, and art historians who unravel from multiple perspectives the story's moral and religious character and its place in contemporary academic debates. They show the Vessantara Jataka to be as brilliantly layered as a Homeric epic or Shakespearean play, with aspects of tragedy, comedy, melodrama, and utopian fantasy intertwined to problematize and scrutinize Buddhism's cherished virtues. Unusual for its disciplinary range, this collection helps recast Buddhism as a human tradition rich in ethical, political, and aesthetic complexity. It also features an introduction describing the work's main themes and styles, a character glossary, and a bibliography.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Collins, Steven

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturen sonstiger Sprachräume Ost- & Südostasiatische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Buddhismus Buddhismus: Kult, Riten, Zeremonien
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Buddhismus Buddhismus: Heilige Texte & Traditionsliteratur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PrefaceIntroduction, Dramatis Personae, and Chapters in the Vessantara JatakaSteven Collins1. Readers in the Maze: Modern Debates About the Vessantara Story in ThailandLouis Gabaude2. Emotions and Narrative: Excessive Giving and Ethical Ambivalence in the Lao Vessantara JatakaPatrice Ladwig3. Blissfully Buddhist and Betrothed: Marriage in the Vessantara Jataka and Other South and Southeast Asian Buddhist NarrativesJustin McDaniel4. Jajaka as Trickster: The Comedic Monks of Northern ThailandKatherine Bowie5. Narration in the Vessantara Painted Scrolls of Northeast Thailand and LaosLeedom Lefferts and Sandra Cate6. A Man for All Seasons: Three Vessantaras in Premodern MyanmarLilian Handlin7. Vessantara Opts Out: Newar Versions of the Tale of the Generous PrinceChristoph EmmrichIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Steven Collins is Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, where he teaches in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations and in the Divinity School. He is a council member of the Pali Text Society (London), and his books include Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism and Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities: Utopias of the Pali Imaginaire.