1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910255234103321

Autore

Ng Edwin

Titolo

Buddhism and Cultural Studies [[electronic resource] ] : A Profession of Faith / / by Edwin Ng

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London : , : Palgrave Macmillan UK : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2016

ISBN

1-137-54990-4

Edizione

[1st ed. 2016.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XI, 270 p.)

Disciplina

306.01

Soggetti

Culture—Study and teaching

Ethnology—Asia

Buddhism

Spirituality

Ethics

Cultural studies

Cultural Theory

Asian Culture

Cultural Studies

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1.Introduction -- 2.Towards a Spiritually-Engaged Cultural Studies -- 3.Methods, Traditions, Liminal Identities -- 4.Of Intellectual Hospitality, Buddhism and Deconstruction -- 5.The ‘Religious Question in Foucault’s Genealogies of Experience -- 6.The Care of Self and Spiritually-Engaged Cultural Studies -- 7.A Foucauldian analysis of Vipassana and a Buddhist art of living -- 8.Buddhist Critical Thought and an Affective Micropolitics of (Un)Becoming -- 9.A Profession of Faith -- 10.Conclusion: Yours faithfully .

Sommario/riassunto

This book explores the reciprocity between Buddhist, Derridean, and Foucauldian understandings about ethics, subjectivity, and ontological contingency, to investigate the ethical and political potential of insight meditation practice. The book is narrated from the perspective of a postcolonial ‘Western Buddhist’ convert who, despite growing up in Singapore where Buddhism was a part of his disaporic ‘Chinese’



ancestral heritage, only embraced Buddhism when he migrated to Australia and discovered Western translations of Buddhist teachings. Through an autoethnography of the author’s Buddhist-inspired pursuit of an academic profession, the book develops and professes a non-doctrinal understanding of faith that may be pertinent to ‘believers’ and ‘non-believers’ alike, inviting the academic reader in particular to consider the (unacknowledged) role of faith in supporting scholarly practice. Striking a careful balance between critical analysis and self-reflexive inquiry, the book performs in all senses of the word, a profession of faith.