Cross-Cultural Visions in African American Modernism: From Spatial Narrative to Jazz Haiku

by Yoshinobu Hakutani

Yoshinobu Hakutani traces the development of African American modernism, which initially gathered momentum with Richard Wright’s literary manifesto “Blueprint for Negro Writing” in 1937. Hakutani dissects and discusses the cross-cultural influences on the then-burgeoning discipline in three American dialogues, European and African cultural visions, and Asian and African American cross-cultural visions.

In writing Black Boy , the centerpiece of the Chicago Renaissance, Wright was inspired by Theodore Dreiser. Because the European and African cultural visions that Wright, Ralph Ellison, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison acquired were buttressed by the universal humanism that is common to all cultures, this ideology is shown to transcend the problems of society. Fascinated by Eastern thought and art, Wright, Walker, Sonia Sanchez, and James Emanuel wrote highly accomplished poetry and prose. Like Ezra Pound, Wright was drawn to classic haiku, as reflected in the 4,000 haiku he wrote at the end of his life. As W. B. Yeats’s symbolism was influenced by his cross-cultural visions of noh theatre and Irish folklore, so is James Emanuel’s jazz haiku energized by his cross-cultural rhythms of Japanese poetry and African American music.

The book demonstrates some of the most visible cultural exchanges in modern and postmodern African American literature. Such a study can be extended to other contemporary African American writers whose works also thrive on their cross-cultural visions, such as Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Charles Johnson, and haiku poet Lenard Moore.

251 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Yoshinobu Hakutani is a Japanese-American educator and literary scholar. He has written a number of books and papers on American and Japanese literature. Member Modern Language Association, American Literature Association, Theodore Dreiser Society (president since 1998), Richard Wright Circuit (member advisory board since 1991).

Since coming to Kent State in 1968, he has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in American literature, African American literature, and linguistics.