研究紹介

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Introduction: Why Study Literature?

In the Department of English Language Education, you can not only develop your academic and communicative English skills, but also become more familiar with English-language literature. I teach in all these areas, but my research interests are primarily related to modern and contemporary literature, poetry in particular. Why study literature? Perhaps the most important reasons, for the language learner, are that literature is motivating (because it is authentic), it expands your language awareness, and it educates the whole person: that is, it can help develop your critical thinking abilities and your emotional awareness.

My research is in three main areas:

1. Modern and contemporary short-form poetry, including English-language haiku, which has become popular internationally. For many years, I have edited and published Noon: Journal of the Short Poem, which features selected work by poets from around the world. I co-edited Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years, published by W.W. Norton (New York, 2013). I also edited Noon: An Anthology of Short Poems, published by Isobar Press (Tokyo and London) in 2019. In addition, I have published several books of my own poetry, including Something Other Than Other (Isobar Press, 2016); another collection is due to appear in 2022. I have published essays and reviews, and given presentations on short-form poetry and its use in English-language teaching.

2. Language through literature: I believe it is important to integrate literature into language learning, so as to broaden students’ language and cultural awareness, as well as develop creative and critical thinking. I am developing teaching materials designed to help students read and discuss poetry in English, not only in terms of its themes and related issues, but also while building their knowledge of how vocabulary and grammar can be used.

3. Modernist American Poetry and the Work of Laura Riding: My doctoral study (at the University of London) was on the work of Laura Riding, a 20th Century American writer of poetry, fiction, and literary criticism, who later turned to the study of language, meaning, and truth. I am revising several parts of that study, with a view to developing these into a book.