What Is Bashō's “Poetical Essay”?

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  • 「俳諧の文章」とは何か
  • 「 ハイカイ ノ ブンショウ 」 トワ ナニ カ

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Abstract

<p>Although Matsuo-Bashō often refers to a “poetical essay,” we have just a vague idea of what he means by it because he doesn't give any concrete definition of it. It is generally believed that the poet wrote Genjūan-ki as a poetical essay, but he continued to revise the concept of it while he was working on the manuscript of the book. The very essence of his literary style, however, seems to lie in such continuous evasion of categorization. Indeed, even his masterpiece Oku-no-hosomichi is hard to be categorized because of its hybridity between a travel essay and a collection of poems. As will be shown in this article, his ambiguous concept of a poetical essay gives an important clue to understanding the poetics of early modern times.</p>

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