the only people for me are the mad ones the ones who are mad to live mad to talk mad to be saved desirous of everything at the same time who burn burn burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars ID: 495687
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Slide1
The Beat Generation
“the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time,
…[who] burn
, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
”
-Jack
Kerouac (On the Road)Slide2
The Beats
BohemianThe practice of an unconventional lifestyle
Celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity
Focus on performance, which later inspired ‘Slam Poetry’
Drew a lot of inspiration from Romanticism
Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman, Poe, DickinsonSlide3
Founders
Allan Ginsberg (1926-1997)Howl, America
Mostly
Poetry
Opposed
militarism, materialism and
sexual repressionJack Kerouac (1922-1969)On the Road (1957)Buddhism, Catholic spirituality, jazz, drugs, sexuality and travelWanted to write ‘the next Great American Novel’William S. Burroughs (1917-1997)Naked Lunch (1959)Almost predicted future (AIDS, crack pandemic, liposuction)Semi-autobiographical workFormer heroin addict, traveler, convicted of manslaughter (wife in 1951), depressionNovels, novellas, short stories, essaysSlide4
Scroll of On the RoadSlide5
Gary Snyder
The “Thoreau of the Beats”Rural background & wilderness experienceMoved to Japan, Zen BuddhismMet in New York City, ended up in San Francisco in the mid-1950sName was coined by Kerouac, dual meanings of both being “tired” or “beaten down” and “upbeat” “beatific”
This was directly in response to a casual conversation about Fitzgerald and the Lost Generation of the American 1920s
Largely middle-class, white, definitely a ‘boys club
’
PNW (!!)
Kerouac spent a bunch of time in the North CascadesThe Dharama BumsOn the RoadReed College (Portland, OR)Slide6
Important Places
ColumbiaGreenwich VillageSan FranciscoSlide7
Characteristics of the Beat Culture
Rejection of received standardsInnovations in style
Use of illegal drugs
Alternative sexualities
An interest in examining religions
A rejection of materialism
Explicit portrayals of the human conditionSlide8
Beatniks
The name suggested that Beats wereFar out of the mainstream societyPossibly pro-Communist
Used as a new stereotype
Man with a goatee and a beret reciting nonsensical poetry and playing bongo drums
Became satirized and appeared in cartoons, movies, etc.
Some original Beats embraced the beatniks stereotypes, though many criticized them as inauthentic poseurs
Original hipsters?Later became HippiesSlide9
Legacy & Impacts
The Obscenity TrialsLawrence Ferlinghetti arrested for distributing “Howl” in 1957
In the 1960s elements of the Beat movement where incorporated into the hippie and larger counterculture movements
Spiritual liberation
Sexual revolution (or liberation)
Demystification and/or decriminalization of marijuana
Evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll as a high art form (Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, etc)Spread of ecological consciousness (Snyder)Opposition to the military-industrial machine civilizationSlide10
Causalities of the Beats
“Kerouac was a casualty too. And there were many other casualties that most people have never heard of, but were genuine casualties. Just as, in the 60s, when Allen and I for a period there were almost publicly recommending people to take acid. When I look back on that now I realize there were many casualties, responsibilities to bare
.” – Gary Snyder
Much of the drug use that the Beats advocated for spiraled from an emphasis on opening creative spaces into a recreational dependence that bordered on (or outright was) dangerousSlide11
Beat Poetry: 50s & 60s American Literature
Over the next week or so we will be exploring Beat Poetry (as well as Confessional Poetry, the Beats’ [mostly] female counterpart)
You will be responsible for understanding and being able to apply
basic poetic terms
to these works
You will be tested on these terms (after Spring Break, as part of our 50s/60s literature unit)Slide12
Poetic Structure
Enjambment
(in verse) the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.Slide13
Poetic Structure
Refraina repeated line or number of lines in a poem or song, typically at the end of each verse.Slide14
Poetic Structure
Stanza
A grouped set of lines within a poemSlide15
Figurative Language
MetaphorA figure of speech in which something is compared or directly related to something elseSlide16
Figurative Language
SimileA figure of speech in which something is compared using words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’Slide17
Figurative Language
PersonificationAttributing human characteristics to something non-humanSlide18
Figurative Language
Allusionan expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing
referenceSlide19
Figurative Language
ImageryThe formation of mental images, figures, or likeness of thingsSlide20
Figurative Language
SymbolismThe use of symbols to represent ideas or qualitiesSlide21
For the Union Dead
By Robert LowellLowell was a
Confessional poet
Poetry of the personal, or “I”
Emerged late 50s, early 60s
As a class we will read the poem out loud
You and a partner will be responsible for identifying each literary element within the poem(Remember – this will be good practice for what you will be tested on)Additionally, you and your partner will need to come up with a brief summary of what this poem is aboutAs with your critical reading, if you are unsure of what something means: look it up! Allusions only make sense if you understand the references…