The Best Minds of a Generation: The Beats (Fully Online)

Reading

Keywords:
Discussion, Film, Intensive Reading, Literature, Presentation, Web Activities

FULLY ONLINE VIA ZOOM! Register here: https://bit.ly/2FSB9wJ

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz...
—from “Howl” by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg

After the US emerged as the last man standing from the global nightmare that was the Second World War, a new social order developed. Veterans—young men who were born during Prohibition, grew up in the Great Depression, and then endured the horrors of WWII before they were even adults—were desperate to “return” to an idealized version of “normal.” The rise of the Soviet Union resulted in communist witch hunts that further encouraged Americans to conform to this ideal—a situation that hid continuing problems of racial and social inequality, and which actively oppressed those who did not meet these expectations. Against this backdrop, a group of poets and novelists, referring to themselves as the Beat Generation, rose up against this smothering personal and cultural suppression to assert their own identities. Although the many writers and writings of the Beat Generation reflect a wide array of styles, subjects, and viewpoints, they share a central ideal of personal freedom and the rejection of false social norms—an ideal which came to define the latter half of the 1900s, and whose influence can still be very much felt today. In this course we will read and discuss these influential writers’ works, as well as the profound effects they had on the American—and international—mental landscape. We will read excerpts of their works and examine their impacts on literature, music, religion, and sexuality.

In this course we will read and discuss these influential writers’ works, as well as the profound effects they had on the American—and international—mental landscape. We will read excerpts of their works and examine their impacts on literature, music, religion, and sexuality.

Attendance: 20%
Comprehension/Discussion Questions: 40%
Online Written Discussions: 40%

1	Introduction The postwar era, the writers, and "What is Beat?"
2	Discussion: Kill Your Darlings (104 min.; 2013) A film about the beginning of the Beat movement at Columbia, and an event that would set the three major writers of the movement on their artistic career paths.
3	Discussion: Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" The subject of a long and highly-publicized obscenity trial, Allen Ginsberg's poem, with its frenetic style and raw content encapsulates the Beat ethos, and serves as a great jumping-off-point into reading the Beats.
4	Class discussion: Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" (cont.)
5	Lecture: Bebop jazz Bebop jazz was the musical movement closely associated with and idolized by the Beats. Artists like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and John Coltrane rejected the newly-genteel conventions of swing jazz and replaced them with passionate improvisation, creating a sound and an energy that the Beats tried to incorporate into their writing.
6	*Discussion: Jack Kerouac's On the Road* (excerpt)** Detailing 7 years of traveling back and forth across the United States with Beat wild-boy-hero Neal Cassady, this is the movement's most famous novel from its most famous writer. It not only recounts the tales of the trip, but tells the story of the people they met on their journeys, and the thoughts and epiphanies they brought about.
7	*Discussion: Jack Kerouac's On the Road* (excerpt) (cont.)**
8	*Discussion: Jack Kerouac's On the Road* (excerpt) (cont.)**
9	Lecture: Buddhism and the Beats I will discuss the Beats' association with Buddhism and Japan (especially Japanese Zen Buddhism), and how their writings led to the continuing Western interest in Asian religion and philosophy.
10	*Discussion: William S. Burroughs' Junky* (excerpt)** A "junkie" (as we spell it today) is a heroin addict. William S. Burroughs spent much of his life as a heroin-addicted petty criminal, and the central theme of much of his writing is that of the dehumanizing effect of drug addiction. Junky, like most of the Beat writings, is semi-autobiographical, and relates stories from Burroughs' time as a small-time drug dealer and hustler in the underbelly of 1950s New York City.
11	*Discussion: William S. Burroughs' Junky* (cont.)**
12	Discussion: William S. Burroughs' Media Although primarily a writer, later in Burroughs' career, he experimented with audio and video recordings, and released a number of albums. Although not strictly literature, a discussion of Burroughs would be incomplete without experiencing these.
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15	Content TBD

The reading in this class can be challenging linguistically, historically, and thematically, but we will work through it step by step in class. Class discussions tend to be lively and broad. Come to class every week with an open mind, and open heart, and a desire to really communicate with your fellow students and teacher.