Haikai Poetics

The spirit of haikai has always been subversive. In poetryhaikai began as an underground movement, motivated by a desire toexplore the forbidden, to ridicule the established, and to teardown dogmatic rules and conventions. At times it has been humorousand witty; full of parody and word-play, but at times it has becomea serious search for ever new ways to understand our existence; astruggle to overcome the limitations imposed on us by tradition andhabits. Unfortunately, popular belief as well as much seriousscholarship has it that haikai is rule-bound, conservative, andstuck in tradition. Japanese culture is all too often supposed tobe backward-looking and reverent of the past. One important aim ofthis study is to challenge such views, to show their shortcomingsand replace them by more fruitful descriptions. Its main focus ison a number of theoretical works written in the eighteenth centuryand makes a detailed discussion of the poetics developed in these.It is a study which may be of interest for those looking for a newand fresh approach to this kind of poetry, an approach which at thesame time comes closer to the original haikai spirit.