STANFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
  
Cover of Literature of the Lost Home by Kobayashi Hideo Edited, Translated, and with an Introduction by Paul Anderer
Literature of the Lost Home
Kobayashi Hideo—Literary Criticism, 1924-1939
Kobayashi Hideo Edited, Translated, and with an Introduction by Paul Anderer


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1995
192 pages.
$26.00

Paperback ISBN: 9780804741156

CITATION

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Reviews

Kobayashi Hideo (1902-83) was the most important Japanese literary critic of the twentieth century, as crucial a presence in his own literary culture as Edmund Wilson, Walter Benjamin, and Roland Barthes were in theirs.

It is not too much to say that modern literary criticism in Japan begins with Kobayashi. Echoes of his judgments and values are everywhere present in modern Japanese literary discourse. Indeed, his impact on later criticism is such that writing about Kobayashi has become something of a rite of passage for Japanese critics aspiring to literary leadership. This book is a collection of the most significant and enduring works from the period when Kobayashi established himself as Japan's preeminent literary critic.

Reviews

"Anderer has now given readers of English the opportunity to form their own conclusions [about Kobayashi]. This is no mean feat, as anyone who has dipped into the original texts knows, and for it he deserves much gratitude. . . . Given the difficulties of Kobayashi's style . . . translation is a paramount issue. Anderer has risen to the occasion admirably."

Monumenta Nipponica

"By making these widely read and often quoted essays available in English, Anderer has provided a valuable service."

Japan Quarterly

About the authors

Paul Anderer is Professor of Japanese and Chairman of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University.

"Anderer has now given readers of English the opportunity to form their own conclusions [about Kobayashi, Japan's preeminent literary critic]. This is no mean feat . . . and for it he deserves much gratitude. . . . Given the difficulties of Kobayashi's style . . . translation is a paramount issue. Anderer has risen to the occasion admirably."

Monumenta Nipponica

"By making these widely read and often quoted essays available in English, Anderer has provided a valuable service."

Japan Quarterly