Rethinking Visual Narratives from Asia

Rethinking Visual Narratives covers topics from the first millennium BCE through the present day, testifying to the enduring significance of visual stories in shaping and affirming cultural practices in Asia. Contributors analyze how visual narratives function in different Asian cultures, and reveal the multiplicity of ways that images can be narrated. The study of local art forms advances our knowledge of regional iterations and theoretical boundaries, illustrating the importance of pictorial stories to the cultural traditions of Asia.

Contributors include Dominik Bonatz, Sandra Cate, Yonca Kösebay Erkan, Charlotte Galloway, Mary Beth Heston, Yeewan Koon, Sonya S. Lee, Leedom Lefferts, Dore J. Levy, Shane McCausland, Julia K. Murray, Catherine Stuer, Greg M. Thomas, Sarah E. Thompson, and Mary- Louise Totton.

Alexandra Green is the Henry Ginsburg Curator for Southeast Asia at the British Museum in London and editor of Eclectic Collecting: Art from Burma in the Denison Museum.

“This volume is a valuable contribution to the subject of narrative art in Asia, with narrative art of South and Southeast Asia and that of East Asia presented together in one volume. This strengthens the common ground of narrative art in Asia, and provides the possibility for a comparison across cultures. Still little has been published on narrative art in Asia, and much of this has a specific geographical orientation. This book should interest scholars of Asian art and culture, and scholars of narrative art more generally, fulfilling a clear need in teaching for less region-specific approaches. It can also be used as a textbook for courses on Asian art, specifically at the Master’s level.” —Marijke Klokke, Leiden University

“The topic is timely, some excellent scholars are involved. Naturally it is not feasible to cover all of Asia’s varied traditions in a single text; this volume offers a preponderance of essays focusing on the art of the Han Chinese but also includes pieces engaging Southeast and South Asia, and cultures as far as Turkey and the Middle East. While discussions of visual narrative have been quite popular in journal articles, this is the only text I know of which attempts to take on Asian narratives as a whole.” —Robert DeCaroli, George Mason University