1 Prof.dr.

Rodica Mihaila 20th Century American Literature Course 7_3 3rd Year English major SPRING 2012

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

Born in Newark, New Jersey. Father Louis Ginsberg school teacher, poet Mother Naomi Communist elegiac poem Kaddish (1961) School in Paterson William Carlos Williams a friend (No ideas but in things) Columbia B.A. 1948- auditory hallucination (Blake) 1953 moved to San Francisco A leader of the Beat Movement and the San Francisco Renaissance. In 1954 married Peter Orlovsky; 1974 with Adrienne Rich co-winner of the National Book Award for Poetry. In Ego Confession he says: I want to be known as the most brilliant man in America () I want to be the spectacle of Poesy triumphant over trickery of the world Poet, guru, world traveler, prophet, visionary of the Flower-Acid-Rock Generation Notoriety as a sociocultural enfant terrible ; one of the most influential post-1945 poets Poetry First major poem Howl (1956) = a milestone of the generation Entire work the stature of Leaves of Grass (as significant as the Wasted Land). He defines it Beat- gnostic-Imagist At once, intimate and prophetic hilarious and terrifying profoundly religious and at times outrageous His poetry encompasses a myriad of experiences (whole human life) - like Whitman incredible power prophetic, Balke, Whitman, the Bible

Whitman a model and mentor in technique - scope - intent but Whitmans poems = hefty songs - Ginsbergs poems = lamentations His impact results from his prophetic stance as a man and as a poet sustained by the vital spirit of Blake and the prophets of the Old Testament a modern day Isaiah the public conscience of the nation he laments the evil humankind he belief in the holiness of life vision of a new Jerusalem Collected Poems: 1947-1980 (Harper and Row, 1984) Approximately 18 volumes before 1984 The tradition of American poetry as voice dependent (Whitman, W.C.Williams) rather than a text for reading Tradition: Blake and Whitman (what they have in common) prophet poet - disregard for distinction between poetry and religion - eclectism His poetry: - distrust for abstractions and the cerebral - invites a complete emotional and physical participation by the audience 1956 Howl the beginning of change dangerous example - revolutionary change (new areas of experience new cultural situations) A dark vision of of the Eisenhower years Alternative to the tightly organized, well written poetry under the influence of New Criticism Emotionally explosive, self-preoccupied, metrically expansive. It created an audience for Robert Lowells Life Studies - Norman Mailers Advertisments for Myself

- Norman OBrown: Life against Death Liberating influences : Jack Kerouac: - the uncorrected first draft - poetry an extension of his own personal relationships (no distinction between what you tell your friends and what you tell your Muse) Ginsberg described himself as a Buddhist Jew with attachments to Krishna, Siva, Allah, Coyote and the sacred Heart a spiritual adventurer. He travelled in the East. Vivid presence in American Life (p. 1120): his poems are fragments of a great confesion.