美国文学-Beat Generation

Beat Generation: Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

Born in New Jersey.

Father, a Paterson

Mother, a radical

and insane

Columbia University

A Supermarket in California What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whit-

man, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees

with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.

In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images,

I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of

your enumerations!

What peaches and what penumbras! Whole fam-

ilies shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives

in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!--and you,

Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the

watermelons?

I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old

grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator

and eyeing the grocery boys.

I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed

the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my

Angel?

I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of

cans following you, and followed in my imagination

by the store detective.

We strode down the open corridors together in

our solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every

frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.

Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors

close in an hour. Which way does your beard point

tonight?

(I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the

supermarket and feel absurd.)

Will we walk all night through solitary streets?

The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses,

we'll both be lonely.

Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love

past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent

cottage?

Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-

teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit

poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank

and stood watching the boat disappear on the black

waters of Lethe?

In 1982, Ginsberg published a summary of \"the essential effects\" of the Beat Generation:

Spiritual liberation, sexual \"revolution\" or \"liberation,\" i.e., gay liberation, somewhat catalyzing women's liberation, black liberation, etc.

Liberation of the world from censorship.

Demystification and/or decriminalization of drugs.

The evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll as a high art form, as evidenced by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and other popular musicians influenced in the later fifties and sixties by Beat generation poets' and writers' works.

The spread of ecological consciousness, the notion of a \"Fresh Planet.\"

Opposition to the military-industrial machine civilization, as emphasized in writings of Ginsberg, and Kerouac.

Attention to what Kerouac called a \"second religiousness\" developing within an advanced civilization.

Return to an appreciation of idiosyncrasy as against state regimentation.

Respect for land and indigenous peoples and creatures, as proclaimed by Kerouac in his slogan from On the Road: \"The Earth is an Indian thing.\"

Other Collections

Kaddish and Other Poems (1960) Empty Mirror (1960) Reality Sandwiches (1963) The Change (1963)

Planet News (1969) The Fall of America (1973) Mind Breaths: Poems 1972-1977 (1978) Collected Poems 1947-1980 (1984) White Shroud, Poems 1980-1985 (1986) Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) - original name Jean-Luis Lebris de Kerouac

Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts

Kerouac learned English as a second language

Kerouac served as a merchant seaman and roamed United States and Mexico. During this period he wrote the unpublished The Sea Is My Brother. His first novel, THE TOWN AND THE CITY, appeared in 1950

He joined the navy and was discharged during World War II on psychiatric grounds

In 1939 he entered Columbia University on a football scholarship, but soon dropped out

While hanging around Columbia campus in 1944, Kerouac began to mix with a group of New York based intellectuals including William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, whose Bohemian life style and search for new philosophy profoundly influenced him. He was married for a short time with Edie Parker and after excessive use of Benzedrine he was hospitalized. Kerouac was addicted to the drug for most of his life.

Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase \"Beat Generation\" in 1948 to characterize a perceived underground, anti-conformist youth movement in New York. The adjective \"beat\" could colloquially mean \"tired\" or \"beaten down, but Kerouac expanded the meaning to include the connotations \"upbeat,\" \"beatific,\" and the musical association of being \"on the beat\".

autobiographical novel ON THE ROAD (1957). The first beat novel was based on Kerouac's travels across America with his friend Neal Cassidy

The Sun Also Rises