Introduction

IT is now a commonplace observation that our globalized economy and digitized technology have made the distant areas of the world interdependent and in a certain quantity of ways more familiar and accessible to individual another. The purpose of the eight essays in this issue of the Bucknell Review is to examine by what mode specific cases of cultural contacts between Pacific Rim and Western European tillages intersect, illuminate their differences, and generally maintain discrete identities. This collection evolveed from a conference entitled East/ West:Points of Contact, single of a series of facts in March 2001 at Lycoming guild Williamsport, Pennsylvania. (1) These circumstances were ...