Bücher von Eric Hoffman

As celebrated as Akutagawa Ry¿nosuke is as a short story writer, his haiku-the first of which was composed in 1906, the same year Akutagawa began to read contemporary Japanese literature-is relatively unknown outside of Japan, and rarely translated. Akutagawa's teikei (fixed-form) haiku, like his fiction, mostly eschews modernism in its embrace of classical forms, and derives as much from literary tradition as from lived experience. If not for their precision, learning, and psychological depth, Akutagawa's haiku share more in common with the haikai of the 17th and 18th century than with 20th century haiku. Frequently they portray a modern consciousness in relationship with an idealized nature that exists more in the Japanese psyche than the landscape that surrounds him. Included in this volume are over 500 of Akutagawa's haiku in a new translation

In 1977, Dave Sim (b. 1956) began to self-publish Cerebus, one of the earliest and most significant independent comics, which ran for 300 issues and ended, as Sim had planned from early on, in 2004. Over the run of the comic, Sim used it as a springboard to explore not only the potential of the comics medium but also many of the core assumptions of Western society. Through it he analyzed politics, the dynamics of love, religion, and, most controversially, the influence of feminism-which Sim believes has had a negative impact on society. Moreover, Sim inserted himself squarely into the comic as Cerebus's creator, thereby inviting criticism not only of the creation, but also of the creator. What few interviews Sim gave often pushed the limits of what an interview might be in much the same way that Cerebus pushed the limits of what a comic might be. In interviews Sim is generous, expansive, provocative, and sometimes even antagonistic. Regardless of mood, he is always insightful and fascinating. His discursive style is not conducive to the sound bite or to easy summary. Many of these interviews have been out of print for years. And, while the interviews range from very general, career-spanning explorations of his complex work and ideas, to tightly focused discussions on specific details of Cerebus, all the interviews contained herein are engaging and revealing.

Hoffman's narrative explores in considerable depth Oppen's thinking about his own work, his reasonings and judgments on himself and his contemporaries in life, politics and poetry. Throughout, Hoffman supplies a rich contextual background to the Oppens' story, one in which public and private life continually intersect.