Daisaku Ikeda, Transnationalism, and American Literature

Daisaku Ikeda, Transnationalism, and American Literature: Dialogues of the Heart examines the writings of Nichiren Buddhist philosopher, poet, and peacebuilder Daisaku Ikeda (1928–2023), focusing on how American literature and transnationalism are integral to the development of his Buddhist philosophy and practices in peacebuilding, religion, and education.

Each chapter explores his engagement with a diverse array of literary texts, from Emerson, Whitman, and other authors of the American Renaissance to the philosophical pragmatism of John Dewey and Martin Luther King Jr., African American literature by Ralph Ellison and Langston Hughes, and a global culture of letters by Muriel Rukeyser, Ben Okri, and others. Throughout, contributors demonstrate the transformative power of literature and philosophy, including their capacities to inspire dialogue and shape Ikeda’s global peacebuilding and human rights agenda. Topics addressed include how poetry enables a pragmatist call to action and how Buddhism inspired avant-gardism in American literature and Black literature in the United States, as well as in Africa.

This edited volume utilizes a range of methodologies to study Ikeda, including a historicist analysis of Ikeda’s evolving engagement with American literature, the application of literary theory and philosophy to Ikeda’s work, and comparative analyses of Ikeda’s views with other thinkers, as well as analyses of Ikeda’s poetry alongside that of other poets.