THE BEAT GENERATION

also known as The Beat Movement

 ABOUT THE LITERARY PERIOD

– in the 1940s and 50s, a new generation of poets rebelled against the
conventions of mainstream American life and writing

– the Beats, a name that evokes weariness, down-and-outness, the beat

under a piece of music and beatific spirituality

– wrote in an authentic, unfettered style

– “first thought, best thought” (Allen Ginsberg)

– expanded their consciousness through explorations of hallucinogenic drugs,

sexual freedom, eastern religion and the natural world
– got inspiration from jazz musicians, surrealists, metaphysical poets,
visionary poets, haiku and zen poetry

– emerged as as a result of the disillusionment that followed WWII, the

holocaust and the use of nuclear weapons against Japan

– mid-1950s, the Beats helped to spearhead a cultural vanguard reacting

against traditional/ conservative American values, materialism and
conformity

– more than half a century after their emergence, the Beats still offer up a
wild style, a sense of freedom and wonder for the natural world almost
unrivaled in postwar literature
FOCUS OF THE
LITERARY WORKS

Influenced by
– romantic poets as major influences on their work
– like Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Blake
– American Transcendental Movement of the 19th century
– fashioned a literature that was much more bold, straightforward, and
expressive

Beats interested in
– changing consciousness
– defying conventional writing
– done through the many themes portrayed in their works
THEMES POTRAYED

Free Love and Sexual Liberation

– strayed from the Christian ideals of American
culture
– people didn’t talk about sex much in 1950
– mention of sex both heterosexual and LGBTQ
– sexual content was also a symbolic way to talk
about society
– Howl by Allen Ginsberg’s (1956)
- takes readers on a tour of the underside of America where
there are drug addicts, drifters, prostitutes and swindlers
- a visceral rage against the system that requires conformity
and selling-out
- the poem talked about the damaging exploitation of
capitalism but gave insights into his own sex life
Alienation
– voluntarily alienating themselves
– just wanted to get away from mainstream society
– used drugs, sex and indifference to social causes
– thought this kind of solitude was good for the soul

On The Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)

- describes a group of people traveling both
geographically and spiritually in the country
- characters were excited to be free of social pressure
and shackles
- found Americans too obedient and lead pointless
lives
- the only way to transcend the control of Big Brother
was by driving off in a car and choosing separation
Revolution
– writers tried to burn down old habits fast
– wrote about whatever they wanted, and used a ton of
profanity

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (1959)

- characters do things like drugs and commit
various crimes
- wrote from different time periods and
hallucinations
After the WWII and Korean War
- hated how Americans prejudiced against east
Asians
- stood for Eastern Buddhist
– BOMB by Gregory Corso (1960)
- expressed his thoughts about the nuclear bomb
innovatively
- used shape, satire, metaphors and symbolism to protest
the nuclear bomb
- resembles a mushroom cloud
- showed the beatniks’ anxiety towards the coming nuclear
era
- a satirical view of the love/hate relationship conformist
America has for the nuclear bomb
FAMOUS SIGNIFICANT
WORKS

– Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair In Letters is a collection of

letters that were written in 1957-1958 between Joyce Johnson
and Jack Kerouac

– On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac

– Naked Lunch (sometimes The Naked Lunch) is a 1959 novel by

American writer William S. Burroughs

– Howl also known as "Howl for Carl Solomon", is a poem written

by Allen Ginsberg in 1954–1955 and published in his 1956
collection “Howl and Other Poems”
– One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) is a novel written
by Ken Kesey

– The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis also known as simply Dobie

Gillis or Max Shulman's Dobie Gillis in later seasons and in
syndication is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from
September 29, 1959, to June 5, 1963. The series and
several episode scripts were adapted from the "Dobie
Gillis" short stories written by Max Shulman since 1945,
and first collected in 1951 under the same title as the
subsequent TV series
FAMOUS SIGNIFICANT
AUTHORS

Irwin Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997)

– an American poet, philosopher, and writer
– as a Columbia University college student in the 1940s, he
began close friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack
Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Generation
– vigorously opposed militarism, economic materialism, and
sexual repression, and he embodied various aspects of this
counterculture with his views on drugs, hostility to
bureaucracy, and openness to Eastern religions
William Seward Burroughs (February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997)
– an American writer and visual artist
– was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a
major postmodernist author whose influence is considered to have
affected a range of popular culture as well as literature
– found success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), but he
is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959)
Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969)
– an American novelist and poet of French-Canadian ancestry
– In 1969, Kerouac died from an abdominal haemorrhage caused
by a lifetime of heavy drinking
– Since his death, Kerouac's literary prestige has grown, and
several previously unseen works have been published
– The Town and the City, On the Road, Doctor Sax, The Dharma
Bums, Mexico City Blues, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels,
Visions of Cody, The Sea Is My Brother, Satori In Paris, and Big
Sur