An examination of modern Western, mainly American, and Eastern texts "unveiling" the cultural conceptualization produced by each culture about the other. Maier (English, State U. of New York) dives into the postmodern breadth of textual studies by analyzing fiction, folktales, advertising copy, oral histories, ethnographic studies, and travel literature. He juxtaposes The Aeneid with the movie The Desert Song , and Paul Bowles is considered side by side with the oral story tellers he recorded. Heavily influenced by Said's Orientalism , the volume continues the tradition of lively, postmodern cultural dialogue. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.