This work investigates the interlocking histories of "cultural instruments", meaning normative forms of analysis and practice that are central to Western culture and in the course of their history came to be ways of understanding and controlling different cultures.

"This impressive piece of original research and analysis reframes numerous debates in literary studies (especially post-colonial and Third World literatures), presents alternative views on relationships among several literary areas, and serves as a vivid antidote to much humdrum or dogmatic work. It's a big book, and an important one, and for many it will be an essential one."--Haun Saussy, Stanford University
"This is a magesterial study of the various cultural instruments (ideas, forms, discourses) used by the West to control other cultures as well as the reworkings of these instruments by cultures which creatively refashioned them to fit their own needs. With its broad coverage of periods and languages, its tremendous learning, and its radical challenge to Eurocentric aesthetics, it constitutes a model of global literary studies for the new century. For those interested in the operations of cultural exchange, this is an indispensable book."--Vassilios Lambropoulos, University of Michigan

" . . . a courageous book like this, carefuly articulated and aresting on the absolute mastery of over three hundred primary sources, belongs on the shelves of everyone with a serious interest in the material covered in this journal."