Renáta Császár

Fusion of Zen and Cubism in E. E. Cummings's Poetry: Haiku Pictures in Cubist Frame Renáta Császár

In this work I intend to explore the impacts of the Oriental and Western values, trends and views of life in E. E. Cummings?s art. Considering that he was an avant-garde poet and a Cubist painter, the avant-garde trends in his poetry are supposed to be analyzed; then, some features of Zen philosophy ?which sometimes is called a religion, sometimes a way of thinking, or sometimes even a technique ? are meant to be presented. Since haiku is the literary expression of Zen, the haiku pictures of E. E Cummings?s poetry are one of my main topics. My aim is to explore the specificity of Cummings?s poetry; since, he has found the common concepts of Zen and avant-garde trends, which -in a superficial comparison- seem to be strongly different from each other. Cummings?s evergreen and unique approach to letters, his experiments with the expressive power of the fragmented words and the fragmented experience lying behind the letter-particles can repeatedly delight everyone who is interested in the mysterious process of creation.