| Chapter 1: | Autobiographical Self |
This is a limited free preview of this book. Please buy full access.
In the poetic discourse of haiku, I am able to go from the space of ambiguity into momentary clarity, back and forth. This back and forth flow generates another space akin to Bhabha’s (1990) third space, “which enables other positions to emerge” (p. 211). Haiku thus allows me to feel and express the contradictory emotions that accompany my story. Contradiction of identity may create new spaces for haiku. According to Kristeva, the signifying process of language is composed of two parts, the semiotic that is feminine in nature and the symbolic that is paternal (Kristeva, 1980, p. 239). Poetic language is revolutionary because it is a conduit in which the structure of the symbolic and the semiotic, where the social and the body meet, where the unconscious and conscious intersect, become one and convey the sum of human creativity through poetic discourse (Kristeva, 1984, p. 81). I want my haiku to invite the symbolic and the semiotic to intermix, to become an expression of human feeling.
Like a helpless fish
Wriggling on the cutting board
Begging for mercy
Metaphors
During my previous master’s degree research, my participants wrote many metaphors in their diaries. Since then, I have been very curious about the metaphors that I use to describe my own situations.
According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), metaphors hold root in our unconscious mind, as culturally situated conceptual maps. How then do I translate my Japanese metaphors into English?