本书收录五年来的部分长文、短文和答问。 前后看一遍，看出了主题，一以贯之，就是“为文学申辩”。 文学是万古江河，但是，在它存续的每一世代，在每一个“此时此地”，它都是一种弱的、备遭猜疑蔑视的事物，同时，它的那些最热情、最真诚的维护者们，也经常辛辛苦苦地使它僵硬和凝固——使江河干涸。 所以，文学需要为之申辩，在申辩中领会它的价值，领会它的过去和未来，领会它真的精神和活的生命。 选择“申辩”一词，颇费踌躇，我喜欢这个词招架和防守的姿态，不得不辩，但这个“辩”并非一味进攻，并非“手执钢鞭将你打”，“辩”是为了“申”——自我认识和申明。申辩的过程其实是反思的过程，既辩之于人，也反求诸己。 也就是说，五年来上天入地四面八方地说文学，并非怀里揣着取自东海龙宫的法宝，更不是为了布道，而是为了求道——面对公众和同行，面对自己，小心地求证文学在这个时代的价值和它的可能性。 所以，这本书叫做“关于文学的价值与可能的对话”或许更为恰切。 感谢在这些文章和这本书的形成过程中催促、启发、帮助我的朋友们。感谢我的对话者们：熟悉的和陌生的提问者，写出我所赞赏或质疑的作品的作家，提出我赞同或非议的观点的批评家。 ——引自李敬泽博客

前言：本雅明学术思想述略 一、批评概念/内在批判/寓言:德国浪漫主义的批评概念（节选）（1920）/歌德的《亲和力》（1911-1922）--献给尤拉.科恩/德国悲剧的起源（节选）（1928） 二、诗歌/小说/新闻:超现实主义（1929）--欧洲知识界之最后一景/卡尔.克劳斯（1930-1931）/弗朗茨.卡夫卡（1934） 三、语言/翻译/叙事:论语言本身和人的语言（1916）/翻译者的任务（1921）/讲故事的人（1936）--尼古拉.列斯科夫作品随想录/什么是史诗剧（1939） 三、律法/文化/历史:暴力的批判（1921）/单向街（1928）/历史哲学论纲（1940） 译后记

In ancient China a monster called Taowu was known for both its vicious nature and its power to see the past and the future. Over the centuries Taowu underwent many incarnations until it became identifiable with history itself. Since the seventeenth century, fictive accounts of history have accommodated themselves to the monstrous nature of Taowu. Moving effortlessly across the entire twentieth-century literary landscape, David Der-wei Wang delineates the many meanings of Chinese violence and its literary manifestations. Taking into account the campaigns of violence and brutality that have rocked generations of Chinese - often in the name of enlightenment, rationality, and utopian plenitude - this book places its arguments along two related axes: history and representation, modernity and monstrosity. Wang considers modern Chinese history as a complex of geopolitical, ethnic, gendered, and personal articulations of bygone and ongoing events. His discussion ranges from the politics of decapitation to the poetics of suicide, and from the typology of hunger and starvation to the technology of crime and punishment.

This is a study of the Romantic poets and the relation between tradition and the individual artist. For the second edition, Bloom offers a new introduction which explains the genesis of his thinking and the subsequent influence of the book on literary criticism of the past 20 years. It is intended for scholars and students of Romantic poetry, 18th and 19th century English literature, poetry, and literary theory.