A groundbreaking essay on literature's demise from the award-winning philosopher

What comes after the death of literature? Kojin Karatani, winner of the 2022 Berggruen Prize, examines the corpse, investigates the cause of death, and offers glimpses of an afterlife from various theoretical perspectives. The End of Modern Literature reimagines the significance and concept of literature.

Alongside Karatani's essential essay comes commentary and responses by Fredric Jameson, Bruce Robbins, Kenneth W. Warren, Gauri Viswanathan, Andrew Gibson, Young-il Cho, Yoshiki Tajiri, Michael K. Bourdaghs, and Jonathan E. Abel, along with an introduction that situates Karatani's essay in his theoretical oeuvre.

"The premise of The End of Modern Literature 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 Zizek