haiku

We shall explore haiku about all kinds of moments in time: natural (concerned with animals and flowers, for instance) and social (concerned with work and play, for instance.) We shall discuss three basic haiku techniques and other haiku techniques that involve the structure of haiku and ones that evoke emotion. We'll learn how to express ourselves and our emotions in a subtle, understated way, drawing on observation of the world around us, as do the Japanese.

Previous participation in the beginner Japanese forms class or the intro to Japanese Aesthetics class required. This course is a prerequisite for the haibun course.

Week I: Review of Haiku Principles, Haiku Categories, and Basic Haiku Techniques. What constitutes a haiku? What are the natural categories of haiku? What are the social categories of haiku? What distinguishes haiku in the social categories from senryu? What are the three basic haiku techniques?

Week II: Invoking Emotional Responses in Your Reader. How does one use simile and metaphor in haiku? What are the deep haiku techniques used to evoke strong emotion?

Week III: Haiku Syntactical Techniques. How does one link the two parts of haiku? How does one narrow the focus in haiku? How does one involve the senses in haiku?

Week IV: Haiku Writing Techniques. How does one use writing tricks, such as riddles, word-plays, puns, and paradoxes, in haiku? Can haiku be humorous or ribald, or is that confined to senryu?


Instructor: Alvin Thomas Ethington

About The Instructor: Alvin Thomas Ethington (B.A. With Highest Honors, Oberlin College, 1979; M. Div. With Honors, Yale University, 1983) is a noted teacher, writer, and reviewer. He has taught at Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, California and Triton College, River Grove, Illinois. He prepared community college students for study at major private and public four-year colleges and universities, including Pitzer College, Claremont, California; the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and the University of Illinois-Chicago campus.

He is a published author and was recently honored for his haiku. His poem "haiku (empty chair)" is on the audio tour of The Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California, Poets on Site Tour.

He specializes in languages, culture, and religion. He has substituted for the Greek instructor at California State University at Fullerton and has tutored Biblical Hebrew.

He has been a member of FanStory since 2006 and has won Reviewer of the Month six times. He has also performed pre-publication editing for the former Bishop of Los Angeles, Episcopal (The Rt. Rev. Frederick Houk Borsch) and reviewed college textbooks.

His philosophy on teaching comes from his work as a counselor--he believes that teaching should be student-centered and designs his courses according to the students' needs.