This book focuses on the twin arts of literature and music, supporting the notion that cosmopolitanism is the natural condition of all the arts, and that all culture - without exception - is migrant culture.

Much of this interest has centred on its politics of gender, and its vision of Empire. This book prefers to view the genre in the light of debates within the then nascent sciences of Anthropology and Archaeology.

Marrying life-writing with classical reception, this book examines ancient biography and its impact on subsequent ages.

Fraser illustrates his combined approach with comparative case studies of print, script and speech cultures in South Asia and Africa.