Theory Of Literature And Other Critical Writings

Although Natsume Soseki is widely celebrated as Japans greatest modernnovelist he began his writing career as a literary theorist and scholar ofEnglish literatu... » 

Although Natsume Soseki is widely celebrated as Japans greatest modernnovelist he began his writing career as a literary theorist and scholar ofEnglish literature. He would later look back on his Theory of Literature 1907as an immature and unfinished work but it is in fact an astonishingly originalattempt at constructing a model for understanding all literature through theexperience of reading. Soseki insists that literary taste is socially andhistorically determined a position that allows him to challenge thesuperiority of the Western canon. Moreover even as Soseki defines the literaryby distinguishing it from the scientific his theory is grounded in scientificknowledge thereby claiming a universal validity.The Theory of Literature foreshadows the ideas and concepts that would laterform the critical foundations of formalism structuralism readerresponsetheory cognitive science and postcolonialism. It remains an unprecedentedwork of literary theory unmistakably modern yet also clearly and selfconsciously nonWestern. In a laterseries of lectures and essays Sosekicontinued to develop his ideas. This material some of it never beforetranslated into English is also included in the volume. The editors offer acritical introduction that contextualizes S?sekis theoretical projecthistorically and explores its contemporary legacy. «