Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"I have hopes that Karatani's book--one of those infrequent moments in which a rare philosophical intelligence rises to the occasion of full national and historical statement—will also have a fundamental impact on literary criticism in the West. . . . For
Origins has some lessons for us about critical pluralism, in addition to its principal message, which turns on that old and new topic of modernity itself."—Fredric Jameson, from the Preface
"Karatani’s ear for anecdotes makes the book more than a dry theoretical exercise. For the English edition, Brett de Bary and her team of co-translators add background information, and an entirely new essay by Karatani, 'The Extinction of Genre,' is included. This additional material makes the translation worth a look even for those who can read the original." -- Matt Treyvaud * Japan Times *
Table of ContentsForeword: In the Mirror of Alternate Modernities / Fredric Jameson vii
Introduction 1
1. The Discovery of Landscape (translated by Brett de Bary) 11
2. The Discovery of Interiority (translated by Brett de Bary) 45
3. Confession as a System (translated by Brett de Bary) 76
4. Sickness as Meaning (translated by Yukari Kawahara and Robert Steen) 97
5. The Discovery of the Child (translated by Ayako Kano and Eiko Elliott) 114
6. On the Power to Construction (translated by Ayako Kano and Joseph Murphy) 136
Materials Added to the English Edition (translated by Brett de Bary)
7. The Extinction of Genres (1991) 175
Karatani Kōjin's Afterword to the Japanese Paperback Edition of
Origins of Modern Japanese Literature (1988) 185
Karatani Kōjin's Afterword to the English Edition (1991) 190
Notes 197
Glossary 209
Index 217
