Beat Generation Literature Questions
Bring on the tough stuff. There's not just one right answer.
- Allen Ginsberg is considered one of the fathers of the Beat movement, but he also had a big influence on the hippie counter-culture of the 1960s. Is it appropriate to lump the Beat Movement together with the wild revolution that followed? Why or why not? What are the similarities and the differences between these two periods?
- The Beat Movement lasted only a decade. What led each of its founding founders to go his own way? Was there anything about Beat ideals, do you think, that doomed this movement to being short-lived?
- William Burroughs's novels are considered part of American post-modernism, but he was also a crucial member of the Beat movement. What literary characteristics does he share with each literary era? What about his writing sets him apart from each movement?
- The Beats really dug Jazz music. Where can you see the influence of improvised musical expressions emerge in Beat literature?
- Why so much cussin'? What purpose does profanity serve as a literary device, do you think? Does this kind of "harsh" language stand up over time, contributing a lasting intensity and rebelliousness to the work? Or does its novelty wear off, leaving these "shocking" words to distract you from the core themes of the work?
- Free verse was the name of the game for Beat poets. Now, since Walt Whitman was considered to be the father of American free verse, you would guess that his writings had a pretty big influence on the Beats. Which Beat authors explicitly harken back to Mr. Whitman? Where can you see hints of Whitman's literary style cropping up in Beat works?
- Psychedelic drugs help the Beats access literary expressions that their conscious minds oppressed because of restrictive social norms. What kind of writing is considered "hallucinatory" by today's standards? What social norms are we battling to escape these days?
- How do you think Beat authors' expressions of sexual taboos in their works have molded talk about sex in today's novels?
- Why are there no prominent female Beat writers? Do you view Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Kerouac as misogynistic? How does the lack of female writers in this movement affect how we read and analyze Beat literature?
- The Beats claimed they wanted to be inclusive of all cultures. But the movement itself was almost exclusively white guys. What does this disconnect between talk and action say about white male privilege in literature? How does the absence of work by people of color in The Beat Canon affect the way we understand their inclusive message?
- If eastern religious thought heavily influenced the Beats, can this literature be counted as multi-cultural? If not, does this eastern influence read as just a cultural fad that waters down the work? In whose work does this eastern influence manifest itself most prominently?