The mirror diary : selected essays
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The mirror diary : selected essays
(Poets on poetry)
University of Michigan Press, c2017
- : paper
Available at 3 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Garrett Hongo makes a literary inquiry into the century-long history of Japanese Americans, particularly in Hawaii and California, seeking answers to questions regarding the mosaics of American identity in the contexts of diaspora and postmodernism. His essays address issues in contemporary poetry and Asian American literature, attest to his studies of poets of the Chinese T’ang—as well as American poets Walt Whitman and Charles Olson, chronicle his journalistic coverage of the politics of race and Congressional legislation regarding the Japanese American internment during World War II, and describe what he considers his own cultural inheritance and literary antecedents. There are essays on controversies and contestations in Asian American literature, paeans to the Hawaiian landscape, and a welcoming, Whitmanic address to immigrants newly arrived in America. He explains free-verse prosody by talking about the great jazz musician John Coltrane. He praises his contemporaries—poets David Mura, Edward Hirsch, and Mark Jarman—and acknowledges his mentors Bert Meyers and Charles Wright. What emerges is a poet fully engaged with contemporary politics as well as poetics and committed to traditional learning in diverse traditions.
The Mirror Diary tracks the formation of a learned consciousness regarding multiple and sometimes competing influences from literary tradition, regional and ethnic histories, and the quest for an original poetic voice. Throughout, Hongo’s focus is on a literary response to issues and events, a considered meditative and decidedly poetic language informed by tradition and reflective of contemporary experience. He asks the question How shall I sing of this body?, burdened by a painful history and yet inspired by the beauties of language and the moral values of justice and recognition.
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