Follows the life of the heroine through her many vicissitudes, which include her early seduction, careers in crime and prostitution, conviction for theft and transportation to the plantations of Virginia, and her ultimate redemption and prosperity in the new World.

"I have hopes that Karatani's book--one of those infrequent moments in which a rare philosophical intelligence rises to the occasion of full national and historical statement--will also have a fundamental impact on literary criticism in the West. . . . For "Origins" has some lessons for us about critical pluralism, in addition to its principal message, which turns on that old and new topic of modernity itself."--Fredric Jameson, from the Preface

'The Táin' (meaning ‘The driving-off cows of Cooley’) is a legendary Irish tale set in the first century AD. It tells of a war against Ulster by the Connacht queen Medb and her husband Ailill, who intend to steal the stud bull Donn Cuailnge and are challenged by the Ulster hero Cú Chulainn. Written in the 12th century and set in the pre-Christian first century, the Táin is the central text in the ‘Ulster Cycle’. These stories from the Tain were edited with glossary by the Celtic, G...