Great Readings in Asian Studies
This curated bibliography brings together transformative monographs, seminal essays, paradigm-shifting empirical studies, and foundational cultural texts in Asian Studies. Rather than introductory surveys, these works showcase how scholars, philosophers, and writers have formulated theoretical frameworks, unsettled Eurocentric assumptions, and analyzed the social, political, and ecological landscapes of Asia.
Foundational Epistemologies, Historiography & Decolonial Theory
| Title | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| Orientalism | Edward W. Said |
| Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference | Dipesh Chakrabarty |
| Selected Subaltern Studies | Ranajit Guha & Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (eds.) |
| Can the Subaltern Speak? Reflections on the History of an Idea | Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (ed. Rosalind C. Morris) |
| Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization | Kuan-Hsing Chen |
| Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China | Prasenjit Duara |
State Formation, Political Economy & Everyday Power
| Title | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism | Benedict Anderson |
| Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali | Clifford Geertz |
| Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance | James C. Scott |
| MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975 | Chalmers Johnson |
| Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asian Industrialization | Robert Wade |
Social Structure, Caste & Emancipatory Thought
| Title | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| Annihilation of Caste | B. R. Ambedkar |
| From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society (Xiangtu Zhongguo) | Fei Xiaotong |
| Nationalism | Rabindranath Tagore |
| Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire | Tim Harper |
| The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism | Tani E. Barlow |
Cultural Masterworks, Aesthetics & Narrative Worlds
| Title | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| The Tale of Genji | Murasaki Shikibu (trans. Arthur Waley) |
| The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber) | Cao Xueqin (trans. H. Bencraft Joly) |
| Abhijnanasakuntalam (The Recognition of Sakuntala) | Kalidasa (trans. Arthur W. Ryder) |
| Selected Stories of Lu Hsun (including The True Story of Ah Q and Call to Arms) | Lu Xun |
| This Earth of Mankind | Pramoedya Ananta Toer (trans. Max Lane) |
Maritime Networks, Ecology & Transboundary Worlds
| Title | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250–1350 | Janet L. Abu-Lughod |
| Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 | K. N. Chaudhuri |
| Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680 | Anthony Reid |
| Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants | Sunil Amrith |
| The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable | Amitav Ghosh |