“The premise of The End of Modern Literature, the collective volume edited by Karatani, is that everyone knows literature is dead, but no one knows how it died. Consequently, the volume reads like a supreme theoretical detective story, the anatomy of a murder: who did it, why, what are the consequences… Dozens of ideas popped up in my mind. No wonder the volume reads like a detective story since I think that today the only genre of literature that survived its death are detective stories written by women (like Tana French). Plus it seems to me clear that what comes after literature are high-quality TV series. You want to get even more idea? So read the volume – no excuse, no choice, just do it!”
—Slavoj Žižek
“Kojin Karatani might be a reluctant polemicist, indeed a reluctant literary theorist, but his quietly provocative thesis on what he characterises as the end of modern literature, itself full of fascinating insights into the historical career of the novel and its current crisis, has stimulated some remarkable responses, as assembled in this book. The collection is mandatory reading for anyone interested in the destiny of culture under the conditions of late capitalism.”
—Matthew Beaumont, Professor of English Literature, UCL
