White Heron: Authorised Biography of Australia's Pioneering Haiku Writer Janice M Bostok

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Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Krauth, Nigel
Year published
2011
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The form of this PhD is an authorised biography of Australia’s pioneering haiku writer, Janice M Bostok, titled White Heron. For the purposes of examination, the biography’s Introduction serves as an exegesis. Drawing on material acquired through unrestricted access to the subject and her personal papers, interviews with family and friends, and meticulous research into her prolific literary output, the work employs a double-stranded narrative structure to tell the story of Bostok’s difficult childhood, extraordinary love affairs and groundbreaking creative endeavours. Inquiry into the theory of English-language haiku – a ...
View more >The form of this PhD is an authorised biography of Australia’s pioneering haiku writer, Janice M Bostok, titled White Heron. For the purposes of examination, the biography’s Introduction serves as an exegesis. Drawing on material acquired through unrestricted access to the subject and her personal papers, interviews with family and friends, and meticulous research into her prolific literary output, the work employs a double-stranded narrative structure to tell the story of Bostok’s difficult childhood, extraordinary love affairs and groundbreaking creative endeavours. Inquiry into the theory of English-language haiku – a genre of ‘one-breath’ poetry that originated in ancient Japan and is now growing in prominence worldwide – is woven throughout the text. The Introduction is the main repository of material relating to the genesis of the project. It articulates the book’s original contribution to knowledge (White Heron is the first Bostok biography), and contains two prominent lines of inquiry: one haiku-related, and the other associated with biographical theory. Haiku-related concerns include: discussion of a misconception over ‘syllable counting’ commonly associated with English-language haiku; a brief history of haiku and its related forms in Japan; a short analysis of the correspondences between meditation practice and haiku practice; an appraisal of the influence of traditional Japanese poetry on writers connected with the ‘Beat Generation’ (in particular, Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder) and, in turn, the influences of these writers on Bostok; an examination of an over-valuing of the role of Zen in haiku; and, an assessment of the value of haiku as a ‘literary art’.
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View more >The form of this PhD is an authorised biography of Australia’s pioneering haiku writer, Janice M Bostok, titled White Heron. For the purposes of examination, the biography’s Introduction serves as an exegesis. Drawing on material acquired through unrestricted access to the subject and her personal papers, interviews with family and friends, and meticulous research into her prolific literary output, the work employs a double-stranded narrative structure to tell the story of Bostok’s difficult childhood, extraordinary love affairs and groundbreaking creative endeavours. Inquiry into the theory of English-language haiku – a genre of ‘one-breath’ poetry that originated in ancient Japan and is now growing in prominence worldwide – is woven throughout the text. The Introduction is the main repository of material relating to the genesis of the project. It articulates the book’s original contribution to knowledge (White Heron is the first Bostok biography), and contains two prominent lines of inquiry: one haiku-related, and the other associated with biographical theory. Haiku-related concerns include: discussion of a misconception over ‘syllable counting’ commonly associated with English-language haiku; a brief history of haiku and its related forms in Japan; a short analysis of the correspondences between meditation practice and haiku practice; an appraisal of the influence of traditional Japanese poetry on writers connected with the ‘Beat Generation’ (in particular, Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder) and, in turn, the influences of these writers on Bostok; an examination of an over-valuing of the role of Zen in haiku; and, an assessment of the value of haiku as a ‘literary art’.
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Thesis Type
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Degree Program
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School
School of Humanities
Copyright Statement
The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise.
Item Access Status
Public
Note
This thesis has been scanned. Pages 475-477 have been removed from the original.
Subject
Bostok, Janice M.
Haiku