JPN410/510 Haiku/Haikai
Fall 2014
M/W 4:00-5:20
Glynne Walley
Poster, Course Syllabus

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Japan’s most successful literary export is haiku, a kind of seventeen-syllable mini-poem focusing on the natural world and/or moments of sudden insight into the universe and/or the self.  Haiku, with its poetics of brevity, immediacy, and depth, has informed Japanese culture, and global perceptions of Japanese culture, for four centuries and counting.  However, what Westerners think of as “haiku” is often quite different from what Japanese think of, and modern haiku is different from classical haiku. 

This course will focus on haiku during its golden age, from the 17^th through 19^th centuries, Japan’s early modern period.  We will look at major poets including Bashō, Buson, and Chiyo;  the haikai linked-verse practice from which haiku evolved;  aspects of “haikai culture” such as painting, comic and scatological haiku, and haiku-influenced prose;  haiku’s influence on prose fiction;  and other topics.  We will read scholarship on haiku and its aesthetics, as well as a lot of great poetry.

All readings in the 400-level version of the class will be in English.  Graduate students may expect extra readings in either Japanese or English, depending on enrollment.