Abstract:

Kojin Karatani’s theory of the “discovery of landscape” revolves around the consistency between language and writing, opening up a new theoretical space for landscape criticism. We can develop Karatani’s theory from the following aspects. Firstly, we can open up the linguistic dimension of landscape criticism by leveraging Karatani’s discourse of transparency, and evaluate the multiple dilemmas of modernity narrative carried by this discourse. Secondly, following Karatani’s construction of “externalities”, we can explore the possibility of transforming from internal linguistics to “linguistics of otherness” and the value of such transformation for landscape criticism. Finally, based on the contingency and hybridity of language, we can examine the ethical demands in Karatani’s landscape theory, redescribing the stylistic features of landscape writing and the discourse logic of landscape aesthetics.

Key words: landscape, Kojin Karatani, consistency between language and writing, transparency, hybridity