American Haiku, Eastern Philosophies, and Modernist Poetics

by Yoshinobu Hakutani

American 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.

237 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 29, 2020

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.