Description: "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
Review Quotes: "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"