Buddhism in Contexts

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This seminar will examine studies of Buddhism in the “contact zone,” or historical episodes in which Buddhism impacted other cultural formations (such as ancient Greek skepticism and modern Western psychoanalysis), as well as instances in which Buddhism adapted to new cultural spaces (such as medieval China and the secular West). By examining Buddhism as comprising interactions with entities normally identified as “others,” a primary analytical question will center on how to best define and study a “tradition”—religious or otherwise. A related question will be to what degree the Buddhist episodes demonstrate that all traditions consist of successive as well as parallel moments of context-determined translations. The alternative question, in contrast, is to what degree the episodes exhibit patterns that flesh out Buddhism’s (in)famous reputation for adaptability.