Autobiographical Elements of Richard Wright’s Haiku

Posted on February 28, 2011 | No Comments

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. CST
Please join us for a FREE virtual seminar led by Toru Kiuchi, Professor of English at Nihon University in Japan

Click here to join the seminar!

Abstract: 95.7 per cent of Wright’s haiku carry a season word. It was easier for Wright to return to his childhood memory of Mississippi, which was full of trees and flowers, than to use images taken from Paris. Sick in bed in Paris, Wright must have been trying to find a season word without going out, recalling his childhood days in Mississippi, which was “a whole world of emotion, of sounds and scents and colours.” Composing haiku, Wright returned not only to his childhood, but also to Chicago and New York days. Accordingly, his haiku comprise quite a few autobiographical elements in them. This lecture makes clear how Wright include his autobiographical factors in the composition of his haiku.

About Toru Kiuchi:
Dr. Toru Kiuchi is a Professor of English at Nihon University in Japan. He is the leading translator and scholar of Richard Wright’s work in Japan. Dr. Kiuchi has written widely about the Japanese response to African-American literature. He coauthored the book, The Critical Response in Japan to African American Writers and has published many articles on Wright in the Japanese Journal of Black Studies and elsewhere.

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