Far from the Text (Kodansha Literary Paperback, P. 5)

What is happening in the novel now? The author, who has consistently engaged with contemporary literature and criticism, presents a philosophy for living together, gleaned from his struggles with the literary world.

*Far from the Text* may seem like a difficult book at first glance. However, there's a reason it's difficult. It's because, while it's truly important, understanding it properly requires more than the "appropriate" or "as-is" approaches we usually take. Sometimes, we need to chew on something "hard." To absorb the "nourishment" our bodies need.

—Genichiro Takahashi (from the "Commentary")

"Textual criticism," which, along with postmodern thought, swept through Japanese literary theory from the 1980s onward. Tracing its origins in the theories of Barthes, Derrida, and Foucault, this is the author's magnum opus in literary criticism, revealing a new methodology that transcends the limits of textual theory from within the novel itself, through readings of cutting-edge works by contemporary authors such as Kenzaburo Oe, Genichiro Takahashi, Haruki Murakami, and Kazushige Abe. A work that conveys the dynamism of criticism, and winner of the Takeo Kuwahara Academic Prize.