ANALYZING A POEM THE SWIMMER BY SAKUTARO HAGIWARA

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the poem The Swimmer by Sakutaro Hagiwara, basedon the theory of phenomenology, as well as on reader-response criticism, and on the contextprovided by the poet’s belonging to the Modernist movement. The poem The Swimmer can beregarded as an illustration of Merleau-Ponty’s concept of the body, which offers readers theopportunity to consider the body not as an object but, instead as a subject which allows us theopportunity to perceive the world, as well as to interact with it. The sensory experience issuggested clearly all throughout the poem. This experience allows the poetic persona toexperience subjectively the reality of swimming and to express this personal perception. Thereader-response approach also focuses on subjective experience, and this paper shows that, inexpressing an emotional reaction to the text, as well as an interpretation of it relying onbackground knowledge, readers rely on free associations based on the elements present in thepoem. For Merleau-Ponty the external space is experienced subjectively, as an internal space,a subjectivity which underlies reader-response approaches, as well as Modernist literary works.Poetry is also focused on a subjective experience and view of the world. We cannot remainobjective as readers even, when reading the poem The Swimmer by Hagiwara. We see theswimmer completely merging with his surroundings, showing that he is in his environment andthat he is enjoying himself.