Rajyashree Pandey is professor emerita in Japanese studies in the Politics department of Goldsmiths, University of London, and visiting fellow in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.

"A raucously funny and surprisingly tender account of medieval Buddhist literary views of the body and its many excretions." - Charlotte Eubanks, Pennsylvania State University"The Excremental Imagination is the product of extensive research and a masterful command of the materials covered. - Andrew Goble, University of Oregon Excrement abounded in medieval Japanese literature—yes, signifying disgust and played for laughs, as we might expect, but also serving to elicit compassion and even to trouble binaries of purity and impurity and attachment and enlightenment. Pandey’s nuanced readings of Buddhist, literary, and pictorial texts reveal the protean reach of that ‘pliant and malleable signifier.’ This is a must-read for anyone interested in medieval literature or the history of our relationship to excrement." - David L. Howell, Harvard University"I love this book! It pushes over outdated clichés of ‘oriental spirituality,’ grabs the reader by the collar and holds them over the cesspool, where we perforce can smell the genial humor of Buddhist authors laughing at the inherently insecure nature of our body and its capacity for subversion. The book deals robustly, cheerfully, and respectfully with topics that are universal yet often shunned in western public discourse: farting, pissing, and shitting." - Andrew Skilton, University of Oxford

Rajyashree Pandey is professor emerita in Japanese studies in the Politics department of Goldsmiths, University of London, and visiting fellow in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.

"A raucously funny and surprisingly tender account of medieval Buddhist literary views of the body and its many excretions." - Charlotte Eubanks, Pennsylvania State University"The Excremental Imagination is the product of extensive research and a masterful command of the materials covered. - Andrew Goble, University of Oregon Excrement abounded in medieval Japanese literature—yes, signifying disgust and played for laughs, as we might expect, but also serving to elicit compassion and even to trouble binaries of purity and impurity and attachment and enlightenment. Pandey’s nuanced readings of Buddhist, literary, and pictorial texts reveal the protean reach of that ‘pliant and malleable signifier.’ This is a must-read for anyone interested in medieval literature or the history of our relationship to excrement." - David L. Howell, Harvard University"I love this book! It pushes over outdated clichés of ‘oriental spirituality,’ grabs the reader by the collar and holds them over the cesspool, where we perforce can smell the genial humor of Buddhist authors laughing at the inherently insecure nature of our body and its capacity for subversion. The book deals robustly, cheerfully, and respectfully with topics that are universal yet often shunned in western public discourse: farting, pissing, and shitting." - Andrew Skilton, University of Oxford

Rajyashree Pandey is professor emerita in Japanese studies in the Politics department of Goldsmiths, University of London, and visiting fellow in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.

"A raucously funny and surprisingly tender account of medieval Buddhist literary views of the body and its many excretions." - Charlotte Eubanks, Pennsylvania State University"The Excremental Imagination is the product of extensive research and a masterful command of the materials covered. - Andrew Goble, University of Oregon Excrement abounded in medieval Japanese literature—yes, signifying disgust and played for laughs, as we might expect, but also serving to elicit compassion and even to trouble binaries of purity and impurity and attachment and enlightenment. Pandey’s nuanced readings of Buddhist, literary, and pictorial texts reveal the protean reach of that ‘pliant and malleable signifier.’ This is a must-read for anyone interested in medieval literature or the history of our relationship to excrement." - David L. Howell, Harvard University"I love this book! It pushes over outdated clichés of ‘oriental spirituality,’ grabs the reader by the collar and holds them over the cesspool, where we perforce can smell the genial humor of Buddhist authors laughing at the inherently insecure nature of our body and its capacity for subversion. The book deals robustly, cheerfully, and respectfully with topics that are universal yet often shunned in western public discourse: farting, pissing, and shitting." - Andrew Skilton, University of Oxford