Throwing in the Textual Towel: Review of Kojin Karatani’s The End of Modern Literature

Bruce J. Krajewski Under Review:The End of Modern Literature: On Permanent Revolution. Kojin Karatani. Edited by Hiroki Yoshikuni, Jonathan E. Abel, and Yoshiki Tajiri. Verso, August 2026. Known best for his notions of “the will to architecture” and “transcritique,” the philosopher and former literary critic Kojin Karatani is a bit sheepish about announcing the end of modern literature, which he says was “born by accident at the end of the last century,” when a “former student I wanted to help” requested an interview (not part of this book). This tone of awkwardness extends through chunks of the collection, with the book’s content drifting occasionally away from the topic announced in the book’s title, but with nearly everyone absorbed by contemplating culture’s destiny. Karatani had first floated the idea “that modern literature came to an end in the 1980s” in a 1990 book called On Endings. (The essay “The End of Modern Literature” was given as a lecture in 2003; that lecture is…