Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Jad Battle
Dr. Craig Wynne
English 220-01
9 December 2016
slogan or label for a revolution in manners in America (Torricelli 211). Kerouac, Ginsberg, and
Burroughs were all young, poor, starving artists in New York City.
Many, if not all of the artists of the beat movement discussed things like drugs, sex, lack
of money, and all things that were against societal norms and anti-materialistic. According to
Carl D. Magrem, The Beats rejected the modernist aesthetic as productive of art that had
become over the years, esoteric, obscurantist, elitist, safe, sterile, dead. Beat poetics called for
rebellion against all forms of authority, especially culturally sanctioned authority, (Patterson
1). Allen Ginsbergs Howl is an example of beat literature. This story was the one that made the
beat movement mainstream and caught many peoples attention. The first time Ginsberg read it
aloud to a crowd, many people liked it. The story caught the attention of Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
who founded City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, California. He published it, but the
government declared it to be obscene due to all of the cursing and the negative depiction of gay
men. Ferlinghetti ultimately won the case, saying that the story was redeeming social
importance (Shmoop Editorial, 2008).
According to the editors at Shmoop, a website created by professors, doctors, and
graduate students, some of the characteristics of the beat movement are post-modern, obscenity,
interracial, alienation, and sexuality.Post modernism works are eccentric and experimental
(Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). The artists whole lifestyle and works were based on their
rejection of materialism so their lifestyles did become peculiar and experimental because of their
anti-materialistic lifestyle, causing them to have to live a different way. Obscene works are
works with a lot of cursing and improper (according to society) topics. Alienation is just what
it sounds like. The artists felt like they had to get away from everyone and everything so they
alienated themselves from society. The literature had a lot of curse words, was more modern than
the literature that was popular at the time, spoke on sex, drugs, and many other topics that were
considered to be taboo.
contained a lot of obscenity, talked about sex, and many more topics that was related to the beat
movement. An example of this is seen in Bukowskis poem making it:
pay your taxes
fu*k
and if you can't fu*k
copulate.
make money but don't work too
hard --- make somebody else pay to
make it --- and
don't smoke too much but drink enough to
relax, and
stay off the streets
In these lines of the poem, Bukowski is embodying what a lot of beat artists talked about
in their writings. Sex, drinking alcohol, and a lot of curse words.
All in all, Bukowskis involvement with the beat movement was interesting, not because
of his actual involvement, but because of his dislike for the movement. He was known as an
anti-beat artist. While his and the other artists works were similar, he wanted nothing to do
with the artists or the movement at all.
Did the background of these artists influence their writing style that would make
them beat artists?
Many times, the household an individual grows up in will have a lasting effect on them.
According to Maanvi Singh of NPR, our earliest experiences may stick with us for years and
continue to influence us well into adulthood. (Singh 1) In doing research on Kerouac, Ginsberg,
and Burroughs, they seemed to all have dealt with some type of adversity.
Allen Ginsberg was born and raised in Newark, NJ, which is notoriously violent. He was
raised by his father and mother. Growing up, his mother suffered from seizures and paranoia.
Watching his mother slowly deteriorate from her illness had a long-lasting effect on Ginsberg,
which he recounted in his poem Kaddish. He got his start in poetry protesting the Vietnam
War. During his senior year at Columbia University, he was facing a robbery charge and plead
psychological disability, causing him to be sent to a psych ward for eight months.
Jack Kerouac was born Jean-Louis Kerouac in Lowell, Massachusetts. He began to face
tragedy at a young age. His older brother died when he was nine from rheumatic fever. This had
a long lasting effect on him because they were close. Kerouac also had a very close relationship
with his mother. He won a football scholarship to Columbia, but soon lost it because he fought
his coach for not letting him play. Shortly after, his father lost his business and began to drink
heavily. Jack ended up enlisting in the Marines, but failed while he was there.
William S. Burroughs was born in St.Louis, Missouri. His background was slightly
different than his co-founders. He grew up in a upper-middle class family. He had a fascination
with violence, crime, and guns. He wanted to break the rules, and his parents were okay with it,
they continued to support him financially in school. Burroughs was known as A bookworm with
strong homoerotic urges (Asher 1).
In doing the research on the three founders of this movement, it is clear that their younger
days and upbringing had an effect on their work. Kerouac and Ginsberg both faced tragedies at a
younger age that stayed with them throughout their lives. Burroughs did not necessarily face a
tragedy but he was a very edgy teenager, which of course effected his works. The trials and
tribulations that these artists faced as young men molded the type of person they would become.
After experiencing these different trials and tribulations, they all had
Conclusion
All in all, the beat movement was one of prominence. It was not a very large amount of
people that were involved but the effects of the movement are still seen today. In this review, the
following questions were answered:
1.
What is the beat movement and what makes an artist fit into the category?
2.
3.
Did the background of these artists influence their writing style that would make them
beat artists?
4.
In exploring literature, it was discovered that the beat movement was a very influential
movement, not in numbers but in the affect it left on the United States literary culture.
Works Cited
10
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Howl." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web.
4 Dec. 2016
The Beats and The Beatles:Two Sides of the Same Coin. Beatdom. N.d. Accessed 8
December 2016.