Twenty Five Ways Of Looking At Haiku

Twenty-five ways of looking at haiku Jon Baldwin What follows are twenty-five quotes or aphorisms from Roland Barthes surrounding his thoughts on haiku. Epigrams serve the haiku well, sharing both brevity and precision. Barthes was one of the most... More

Twenty-five ways of looking at haiku Jon Baldwin What follows are twenty-five quotes or aphorisms from Roland Barthes surrounding his thoughts on haiku. Epigrams serve the haiku well, sharing both brevity and precision. Barthes was one of the most significant literary critics of the twentieth century. His booki , The Preparation of the Novel, from which I have curated the quotes, was his final work and only recently translated into English. Barthes’s primary concern in the book was to explore the creative process of producing a novel. Barthes’s motive for beginning the preparation with discussion of haiku is that he considers the haiku to be the very essence of notationii . As an act in itself, and as a preparation for the novel, it is the short form par excellence. In this regard the haiku is exemplary. The importance of the haiku is that, when successful, it captures, or has a fidelity to, the instant of the moment. It somehow encapsulates the essence of the now. The select Less