Theory of Literature and Other Critical Writings

Theory of Literature and Other Critical Writings is exemplary in its coverage and organization, and the translations and introductions achieve precisely what the editors hope to accomplish: allowing readers to grasp the significance of Natsume Soseki's criticism in its historical context and as a broader contribution to the human sciences. -- Thomas Lamarre, McGill University A work of elegant and faithful translations of some of Natsume Soseki's major critical writings, together with an introduction of considerable erudition. Theory of Literature and Other Critical Writings will go a long way toward correcting the excessively narrow view of Soseki long held by scholars of Japanese studies. -- Richard Calichman, City College of New York

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.