Description
Book SynopsisAmerican Haiku, Eastern Philosophies, and Modernist Poetics traces the genesis and development of haiku in Japan as it transformed over the years and eventually made its way to the Western world. Yoshinobu Hakutani analyzes the prominent Eastern philosophies expressed through haiku, such as Confucianism and Zen, and the aesthetic principles of yugen, sabi, and wabi. Hakutani discusses several reinventions of haiku, from Matsuo Basho’s transformation of the classic haiku, to Masaoka Shiki’s modernist perspectives expressing subjective thoughts and feelings, and eventually to Yone Noguchi’s introduction of haiku to the Western world through W. B. Yeats and Ezra Pound. Hakutani argues that the adoption and transformation of haiku is one of the most popular East-West artistic, cultural, and literary exchanges to have taken place in modern and postmodern times.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Genesis and Development of Haiku in Japan
Chapter 2: Classic Haiku Tradition
Chapter 3: Modernist Haiku Poetics
Chapter 4: Ezra Pound, Imagism, and Haiku
Chapter 5: Richard Wright’s Haiku and Modernist Poetics
Chapter 6: Wright’s Haiku, Zen, and the African “Primal Outlook upon Life”
Chapter 7: Jack Kerouac’s Haiku and Classic Haiku Poetics
Chapter 8: Kerouac’s Haiku and Beat Poetics
Chapter 9: Kerouac’s Haiku and The Dharma Bums
Chapter 10: Sonia Sanchez’s Haiku and Blues Poetics
Chapter 11: James Emanuel’s Jazz Haiku
Bibliography
About the Author
