East Asian Studies KC3993. Section 2. as , Philosophy, and Community. 4 points. Esperanza-Ramirez Christensen, KCJS Professor The seminar will examine the world's briefest known poem, the haiku, and the group linked poetry genre ( and ) from which it sprung. How do these unique forms of poetry signify? What assumptions about the nature of language and meaning lie behind their composition and interpretation? What social milieus produced them? The links to Buddhist practice and arts, and the foundation of Japanese premodern aesthetics in general in Buddhist philosophical concepts will be explored. Readings will be from the poetry and critical commentaries of the renga masters Shinkei, , and their samurai disciples; Bashô and his townsmen group, with later poets such as Buson and Issa, as well as and Zenga (haiku and Zen paintings and calligraphy), providing opportunities for comparative study. The Western understanding of haiku in the Imagist movement, , and the beat generation of Jack Kerouac will also be examined, along with contemporary renga and by Anglo-American practitioners. Secondary sources are available in English, but given the brevity of the poems, analysis of some Japanese texts and their various English renditions will often be possible. Work includes a 36-verse sequence or kasen by the class, and an individual haiku collection or renga composition as an option for the final paper, as appropriate. Students who have sufficient language skill to do so may elect to compose at least some of their haiku for this collection in Japanese. (HU) (World Literature)

REQUIRED TEXTS

Coursepack Readings (available as electronic file)

Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen. Heart’s Flower: The Life and Poetry of Shinkei. Stanford University Press, 1994.

______. Emptiness and Temporality: and Medieval Japanese Poetics. Stanford University Press, 2008.

Haruo Shirane, Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashô. Stanford University Press, 1998.

R.H. Blyth, Haiku Volume 4 Autumn-Winter. : Hokuseido Press, 1982.

Bashô, The Narrow Road to Oku, trans. Donald Keene. Kodansha Intl., 1996.

Makoto Ueda, Literary and Art Theories in . Cleveland: The Press of Western Reserve University.

______. Matsuo Basho. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1970.

______. Literary and Art Theories in Japan. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies, 1991.

Jack Kerouac, Book of . Viking Penguin, 2003. 2

Jane Reichhold, Writing and Enjoying Haiku. Kodansha Intl., 2003.

Cor Van Den Heuvel, ed., The Haiku Anthology. W.W. Norton and Co., 2000.

OTHER SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

David Landis Barnhill, trans. Bashō’s Haiku: Selected Poems of Matsuo Bashō. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004.

______, trans. Bashō’s Journey: The Literary of Matsuo Bashō. State University of New York Press, 2005.

Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1983.

R.H. Blyth, Haiku. 4 vols. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1982.

Robert Hass, ed., The Essential Haiku: Versions of Bashô, Buson, and Issa. HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.

William J. Higginson, The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World. Kodansha International, 1996. (or Stone Bridge Press, 2008) aka The Haiku Seasons: An International Almanac. Kodansha, 1996.

Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen, trans. Murmured Conversations: A Treatise Poetry and Buddhism by the Poet-Monk Shinkei. Stanford University Press, 2008.

Kenneth Yasuda, The Japanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature and History. Tuttle Publishing, 2002. Ikegami, Eiko. Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic Networks and the Political Origins of Japanese Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

4 response papers (3-5 pages; 1 of the papers could be a haiku collection) class presentations participation in renga sequence

3

CLASS SCHEDULE

Week of September 10 HISTORICAL AND GENERIC DEVELOPMENT OF HAIKAI AND

HAIKU

Tuesday: Course Introduction Thursday: Ramirez-Christensen, Heart’s Flower: The Life and Poetry of Shinkei, Ch. 4, “The Sorrows of Exile,” pp. 89-121.

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 17 AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH TO READING AND COMPOSING LINKED POETRY, 1 AND TSUKEKU Tuesday: Ramirez-Christensen, “A Shinkei Reader: Hokku and Tsukeku,” Spring and Summer, pp. 177-210. CPK Thursday: Autumn, Winter, Elegies, pp. 210-224.

Week of September 24 AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH TO READING AND COMPOSING LINKED POETRY, 2 HYAKUIN Tuesday: Ramirez-Christensen, “A Shinkei Reader: Hokku and Tsukeku,” Love, pp. 224-240. Thursday: E. Ramirez-Christensen, trans. and commentary, "Broken Beneath Snow": A Hundred-Verse Sequence by Shinkei, Sôgi, and Others in Winter, 1468, pp. 314-40; 398-406.

[Paper 1 due]

Week of October 1 READING LINKED POETRY 3, RENGA AND , 1

Tuesday: “Broken Beneath Snow,” pp. 341-67; 398-406. Thursday: ERC Trans., “Throughout the Town,” (Ichinaka wa) A 36-verse sequence composed by Bashō, Bonchō, and Kyorai in Kyoto in the summer of 1690

Week of October 8 READING LINKED POETRY: RENGA AND RENKU, 2

Tuesday: Haruo Shirane, Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Memory, and The Poetry of Bashō, Ch. 3: “Haikai Language, Haikai Spirit,” pp. 52-81. 4

Thursday: Shirane, Ch. 5: “Linking and Communal Poetry,” pp. 116-159. Renga/Renku on the net begins.

Week of October 15 HAIKU, 1

[Paper 2 due] Tuesday: R.H. Blyth, ed. and trans., Haiku Volume 4 Autumn-Winter: Autumn: “Preface,” “Fields and Mountains,” “Gods and Buddhas,” “Human Affairs.” Thursday: Blyth: “Birds and Beasts,” Trees and Flowers.”

Week of October 22 HAIKU, 2

Tuesday : R.H. Blyth, ed. and trans., Haiku Volume 4: Winter: “The Season,” “Sky and Elements,” “Fields and Mountains,” “Gods and Buddhas.” Thursday: “Human Affairs,” “Birds and Beasts,” Trees and Flowers.”

Week of October 29 THE CRITICAL DISCOURSE OF THE BASHŌ SCHOOL

Tuesday: Makoto Ueda, Matsuo Bashô, Ch. 5, “Critical Commentaries,” pp. 147-169 CPK Thursday: From Ueda, Literary and Art Theories in Japan, “Impersonality in Poetry: Bashô on the Art of Haiku,” pp. 145-171 CPK

Week of November 5 Fall Break All Week

Week of November 12 THE HAIBUN (HAIKAI LITERARY PROSE), 1

[Paper 3 due] Tuesday: Bashō, The Narrow Road to Oku, trans. Donald Keene, pp. 19-104. Thursday: The Narrow Road to Oku, pp. 107-176

Week of November 19 THE HAIBUN (HAIKAI LITERARY PROSE), 2

Tuesday : Shirane, Traces of Dreams, Ch. 8, “Remapping the Past: Narrow Road to the Interior,” pp. 212-253. 5

Thursday: Shirane, Ch. 9, “Awakening to the High, Returning to the Low: Bashō’s Poetics,” pp. 254-278.

Week of November 26 AND THE WEST, 1

Tuesday : From D.T.Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture: “What is Zen,” pp. 1- 18; “General Remarks on Japanese Art and Culture,” pp. 19-37. CPK Thursday: D.T.Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture, “Zen and Haiku,” pp. 215- 267. CPK

Week of December 3 JAPANESE POETRY AND THE WEST, 2

Tuesday: From Earl Miner, The Japanese Tradition in British and American Literature, “Ezra Pound,” pp. 108-155. CPK Thursday: “The Absorption of Japan into Twentieth-Century Poetry,” pp. 156- 213. CPK

Week of December 10 AMERICAN HAIKU, 1

[Paper 4 due] Tuesday: , ed., The Haiku Anthology, browse through the whole collection Thursday: Jack Kerouac, Book of Haikus, 1-79; 81-181 (browse) [For those submitting poetry collections, consult Jane Reichhold, Writing and Enjoying Haiku: A Hands-on Guide, as reference.] LAST DAY OF CLASS : SUMMING-UP