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Theory of Literature and Other Critical Writings
Contributor(s): Natsume, Sōseki (Author), Bourdaghs, Michael (Editor), Ueda, Atsuko (Editor)
ISBN: 0231146574     ISBN-13: 9780231146579
Publisher: Columbia University Press
OUR PRICE:   $34.65  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: July 2010
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | Asian - Japanese
- Literary Criticism | Semiotics & Theory
Dewey: 801
Series: Weatherhead Books on Asia
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.9" W x 8.9" (0.95 lbs) 304 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Asian
- Cultural Region - Japanese
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) was the foremost Japanese novelist of the twentieth century, known for such highly acclaimed works as Kokoro, Sanshiro, and I Am a Cat. Yet he began his career as a literary theorist and scholar of English literature. In 1907, he published Theory of Literature, a remarkably forward-thinking attempt to understand how and why we read. The text anticipates by decades the ideas and concepts of formalism, structuralism, reader-response theory, and postcolonialism, as well as cognitive approaches to literature that are only now gaining traction.

Employing the cutting-edge approaches of contemporary psychology and sociology, Soseki created a model for studying the conscious experience of reading literature as well as a theory for how the process changes over time and across cultures. Along with Theory of Literature, this volume reproduces a later series of lectures and essays in which Soseki continued to develop his theories. By insisting that literary taste is socially and historically determined, Soseki was able to challenge the superiority of the Western canon, and by grounding his theory in scientific knowledge, he was able to claim a universal validity.

Contributor Bio(s): Ueda, Atsuko: - Atsuko Ueda is associate professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of Concealment of Politics, Politics of Concealment: The Production of "Literature" in Meiji Japan (stanford, 2007) and the co-editor of Theory of Literature and Other Critical Writings (Columbia University Press, 2010).