American Haiku, Eastern Philosophies, and Modernist Poetics

Yoshinobu Hakutani is professor of English and University Distinguished Scholar at Kent State University.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: The Genesis and Development of Haiku in JapanChapter 2: Classic Haiku TraditionChapter 3: Modernist Haiku PoeticsChapter 4: Ezra Pound, Imagism, and HaikuChapter 5: Richard Wright’s Haiku and Modernist PoeticsChapter 6: Wright’s Haiku, Zen, and the African “Primal Outlook upon Life”Chapter 7: Jack Kerouac’s Haiku and Classic Haiku PoeticsChapter 8: Kerouac’s Haiku and Beat PoeticsChapter 9: Kerouac’s Haiku and The Dharma BumsChapter 10: Sonia Sanchez’s Haiku and Blues PoeticsChapter 11: James Emanuel’s Jazz HaikuBibliographyAbout the Author

This comprehensive study sheds new light on the development of modernism, especially in Japanese, American, and African American haiku poetry. Hakutani’s discussion of Yone Noguchi’s influence on Ezra Pound significantly revises our understanding of how Imagism emerged, and he persuasively demonstrates Richard Wright’s engagement with classic haiku poets as well as modernists such as Masaoka Shiki and T. S. Eliot. Hakutani’s deep knowledge of Buddhist and Confucian philosophies, and of the aesthetics of haiku, the blues, and jazz, makes him an indispensable guide to the cross-cultural poetic achievements of W. B. Yeats, Jack Kerouac, Sonia Sanchez, James Emanuel, and others.