Beyond east and west: a story of civilization through the great epics

This volume is a cross-cultural study of the evolution of civilisation.

Drawing its material and inspiration from literature and culture, it looks at the achievements of humankind as a single imaginative experience.

The book examines how traditions of poetry and literature have shaped cultures, societies and civilisations, and their inter-relatedness.

Analysing stereotypes in Asia and Europe, the author raises questions fundamental to our perceptions of culture, democracy, and language.

He throws light on dominant languages and languages cast aside by the tides of history, and attributes the status of English as a 'world language' to ideas propagated in the great epics of the West - particularly Roman - and the poetic heritage shaped by them.