Since its publication in Japan ten years ago, the "Origins of Modern Japanese Literature" has become a landmark book, playing a pivotal role in defining discussions of modernity in that country. Against a history of relative inattention on the part of Western translators to modern Asian critical theory, this first English publication is sure to have a profound effect on current cultural criticism in the West. It is both the boldest critique of modern Japanese literary history to appear in the post-war era and a major theoretical intervention, which calls into question the idea of modernity that informs Western consciousness.
In a sweeping reinterpretation of nineteenth-and twentieth-century Japanese literature, Karatani Kojin forces a reconsideration of the very assumptions underlying our concepts of modernity. In his analysis, such familiar terms as "origin, modern, literature, " and "the state" reveal themselves to be ideological constructs. Karatani weaves many separate strands into an argument that exposes what has been hidden in both Japanese and Western accounts of the development of modern culture. Among these strands are: the "discovery" of landscape in painting and literature and its relation to the inwardness of individual consciousness; the similar "discovery" in Japanese drama of the naked face as another kind of landscape produced by interiority; the challenge to the dominance of Chinese characters in writing; the emergence of confessional literature as an outgrowth of the repression of sexuality and the body; the conversion of the samurai class to Christianity; the mythologizing of tuberculosis, cancer, and illness in general as a producer of meaning; and the "discovery" of "the child" as an independent category of human being.
A work that will be important beyond the confines of literary studies, Karatani's analysis challenges basic Western presumptions of theoretical centrality and originality and disturbs the binary opposition of the "West" to its so-called "other." "Origins of Modern Japanese Literature "should be read by all those with an interest in the development of cultural concepts and in the interrelating factors that have determined modernity.

讽刺（Satire）并不是最重要的文学类型，却是最富创造力和挑战性、最值得铭记的文学形式之一。著名古典学家与文学批评家吉尔伯特·海厄特将讽刺文学分为独白、戏仿与叙事三种类型，并以此为脉络在西方文学中寻踪讽刺文学的各类范本——从古希腊到现当代美国，从阿里斯托芬到欧仁·尤内斯库，从荷马到艾森豪威尔，从贺拉斯到乔伊斯，从柏拉图到乔治·奥威尔——如数家珍般勾勒出作为一种文学与文化形态的讽刺，其起源与流变，目的与方法，其或谑或虐外壳下的理想主义光辉。

本书所收录的文章，涉及近年来颇有影响的二十余位当代中国作家及其作品，分为四辑。这批文章有一些很短，另一些稍长一点，但它们相互交叉，先后引发类似的问题，与其称之为文学批评，不如视之为一种批评的准备，一种尝试用最笨拙的方式审视文学现场的努力。
“苏格拉底认为，假想一个人具有一种他实际上并不具有的美德，这是接近疯狂的行为。这样一种假想显然比与之相反的对一项绝对恶行的疯狂迷恋还要危险。因为对绝对恶行的疯狂迷恋还有治愈办法，而前者则会让一个人或一个时代一天天变坏，也就一天天不公正。 ”
——尼采《历史的用途与滥用》

本书旨在个案讲论中国文学批评范畴的诸多特点，从范畴的质性构成，范畴语词与思想的来源，到范畴的耦合方式和孤行通用规律，各有侧重地界定了传统名言的一般特性。

自1984年起，当代最杰出的文学批评家哈罗德•布鲁姆与切尔西出版社合作，开展一项史无前例的冒险事业：围绕西方最受欢迎的作家作品，精心拣择最富启发性的批评杰作，编辑出版上千种名家批评文集，以帮助读者增进文学鉴赏力。布鲁姆坦言，在这一力求赅备的宏图大业中，自己亦深受教益，学会了如何为大众写作；文学批评不只是个体的洞察，更是公众的事业。二十年后，他把自己为这些批评文集所撰写的导言，分门别类汇成六卷，以纪念这场堂吉诃德式的冒险。六卷书中所呈现的这些短小精悍的文章，堪称一位稀世天才与文学史上无数伟大心灵所碰撞出的炫目火花。
哈罗德•布鲁姆把文章家分为两类，一类如卢梭、卡莱尔、爱默生、梭罗、尼采、弗洛伊德和肖勒姆，他们是酷似先知的智慧作者，立场各异却引领前路。另一类如蒙田、德莱顿、哈兹里特、赫胥黎、萨特和加缪，他们是风格各异的文章家，同样有着充满智慧的笔触。布鲁姆认为这些富于先见之明的文章，它们最终的用途在于帮助人类完善自身，成为满心关怀的独立个体，而不是在对自我和他人的冷漠中沦为个人主义者。

《文学批评原理》内容简介：二十世纪是战争、革命此起彼伏的时代，也是科技、经济突飞猛进的时代。时代的激变给予人们思想意识以巨大震荡，思想意识的震荡又促进了文学艺术和文学理论的千变万化。任何一个世纪没有涌现过如此变化多端的文学流派，任何一个世纪也没有出现过如此层出不穷的文学理论。

20世纪是批评的世纪，文学批评理论空前繁荣：社会历史批评、心理分析、马克思主义批评、女性主义批评、结构主义理论、接受美学、文学史批评……各派都为解读文学作品提供了一种视角或方法。作者巧妙地把这些批评理论编织到了他的谋杀小说中，让每个流派都面对《哈姆雷特》发言，让他们互相辩难，互相揭短，最后又走向毁灭。读者可以在轻松愉快的阅读中了解西方20世纪文学批评理论的概貌，并对文学理论的认识上升到一个新的高度。 这本书也不乏独立的文学价值，作品中充满了喜剧性的揶揄和戏拟，常常令人捧腹。作者以夸张的手法揭示了各种批评流派的局限，也顺带讽刺了当今学术界的一些荒诞现象，勾勒出一幅文学教授的众生相。