1. 1 Birth and development of Beat Generation
Beat Generation, alike “**Generation”, derived from Hemingway’s “Lost Generation”, was invented by Jack Kerouac in 1948. “Beat” has many meanings, such as flaked, defeated, disappointed, dicey as well as divine. However, Kerouac emphasized the sanctimony of those who lived impoverished as a group of heterogeneity at the foot of the social ladder. Holmes said the so-called” Beat Generation” meant not only tired out, exhausted, upset, but also being ordered, used up, utilized, and the naked intuition and sincerity from deep heart[1].
The Beat Generation is a group of American writers and artists popular in the 1950s and early 1960s, influenced by Eastern philosophy and religion and known especially for their use of non-traditional forms and their rejection of conventional social values. Inspired by the improvisational style, harmonic structures and argot of avant-garde jazz musicians, the beats developed several experimental approaches to fiction and poetry which spearheaded to the predominance of American literary academic code. In a sense, the Beat Generation is more regarded as a cultural movement than a literary one. It is closely related to the American counterculture of 1950s and 1960s. Its members have their unique view of world and society. They expressed objection against American materialism and criticism against politicians in a bitter, harsh and often abusive language, reflecting their dissatisfaction with systems, society, and even life. They pursued their own styles as they liked and longed for nothing of the future, but had no ideal to replace the present systems and were reluctant to bear any duty and obligation, which is paradoxical.
The expression “Beat Generation” was first used by Kerouac. Majority of Beats’ thoughts and attitude were expressed in plenty of Beats’ famous works, such as Kerouac’s On the Road, Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and so forth. Their works stressed spontaneous and uncensored writing and were often based on their own experiences of criminals and drifters. Even a whole generation of American youth was influenced by their abnormal living style.
Everything is doomed to have an end. During the early 1960s, focus began to shift from Beat-thinking into hippie-thinking. The Beatles, around 1963, became more and more popular and bridged the beatniks of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s with newly energetic American blues and rock music. The final blow to the popular Beat Movement was Vietnam and the sudden lack of media acknowledgement for people of the Beat Generation. Step by step, Beats disappeared with their more “up-to-date” anti-establishment counterparts.
1. 2 Themes of Beat Writing
The central Beat writers that are William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac, became nationally famous thanks to Howl and Other Poems, On the Road, and Naked Lunch in which they wrote just as they behaved. These works stressed spontaneous writing, often based on their own experiences of criminals and drifters. They influenced a whole generation of American youth by their crazy living style, saying: “I look at this roaring, crazy New York with innocent and strange eyes…just like a nightmare—robbery, loss, heaving and death, only that they can strive for a grave for themselves outside the island.” [2] Just as in the works of two speakers of Beat Generation, Kerouac and Ginsberg, some themes attracted them among which spiritual wasteland was outstanding. The spiritual wasteland was always the foundation for their unfolding of the other themes. Just as Thomas New House said that “To the Beats, America had become a spiritual wasteland, a land of intolerable repression and conformity, and extreme measures were needed to overcome the restriction placed on the individual.” [3] Take Ginsberg’s Howl as an example.
In his long poem Howl, the theme of spiritual wasteland is expressed by Ginsberg through his characterization of Moloch which is in Howl the mirror of American combination between industry, politics and military. Moloch is the only cause of countless sufferings and the incarnation of American industrialization:
Moloch is the soul of American militarism:
Moloch whose fingers are ten armies!
Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! [4]
Moloch is finally the mirror of American social conditioning.
Moloch! Moloch...invincible madhouse!
Moloch in whom 1 sit lonely! [4]
Ginsberg presents every back corner to readers with the manipulation of Moloch, agreed by John Ladas, saying: “Moloch is not a demonized other but the enemy within.”[5]
This must be the best reason for Beats’ writing characteristics—spontaneity. The spontaneity of writing, which is termed as “first thought, best thought” by Ginsberg, is interpreted by Kerouac as the following: not selectivity of expression but following free deviation (association) of mind into limitless blow-on-subject seas of thought…expostulated statement…Blow as deep us you want—write as deeply, fish as for down as you want [6]. This reflects that beat writers believe in intuition potentially lends a violent and destructive force which is quite threatening to the other dominant literary theories.转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net
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