In a Senchimentaru Mood: Japanese Sentimentalism in Modern Poetry and Art (preview) (original) (raw)
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This article explores the functions of poetry as they were envisaged by classical Japanese poets, and by comparison with Chinese poetics. To the traditional four functions of poetry1: didactic, as a means of expressing emotion (the expressive poetics of Ki no Tsurayuki), and of " smoothing " the relations between men and women, as an exercise in literary technique and as contemplation we could add even a fifth function, of the religious, or philosophical poetry, like Ikkyū's dōka, which are like injunctions to the reader, empowering him to discover the deep truths and even the creativity within himself.
Philosophy and Literature, 2002
What kind of criticism are we making of an affective response or attitude when we say that it is sentimental? If emotions are intentionally directed toward objects and situations, and if poems embody or evoke emotion in determinate ways, then we can identify some poems as sentimental for their misrepresentation of, for example, war. In this essay, I try to do so, making reference to Robert Solomon and Wilfred Owen among others.