A Study of an American Poet

elective courses

The course will examine the poetic output of Allen Ginsberg in the context of poems, fiction, music and manifestoes of the Beat Generation.

The course will examine the poetic output of Allen Ginsberg in the context of poems, fiction, music and manifestoes of the Beat Generation. The analysis of Ginsberg's work will require an examination of some elements of postwar American culture and politics (imperialism, or the anti-communist hysteria of senator McCarthy) as well as a brief study of Ginsberg's 19th century inspirations (Transcendentalism) and the impact of Judaism and far-eastern philosophies on his writing and activism. We will trace the history of the Beat movement from its official beginning at the Six Gallery poetry reading in San Francisco in 1955 and look into various aspects of the Beat rebellion, such as the exploration of alternative lifestyles and forms of spirituality, celebration of sexuality and friendship, ecological intuitions. We will examine the subversive potential of this rebellion as well as its limitations (e. g. misogyny). The readings will include texts by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder, Bob Kaufman, Imamu Amiri Baraka and Diana DiPrima.

Baraka, Amiri. "Cultural Revolution and the Literary Canon". Source: Callaloo, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Winter, 1991), pp. 150-156.

Breslin, James E. B. From Modern to Contemporary. American Poetry 1945-65. The University of Chicago Press, 1983.

Breslin, James E. B. The Psycho-Political Muse: American Poetry since the Fifties. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Charters, Anne. The Penguin Book of the Beats. London, New York.: Penguin Books, 1992.

Falla, Jeffrey. "Bob Kaufman and the (In)visible Double". Callaloo, Vol. 25, No. 1, Jazz Poetics: A Special Issue (Winter, 2002), pp. 183-189.

Harris, William J. and Aldon Lynn Nielsen. "Somebody Blew off Baraka". African American Review, Vol. 37, No. 2/3, Amri Baraka Issue (Summer - Autumn, 2003), pp. 183-187.

Herring, Scott. "Her Brothers Dead in Riverside or Russia: Kaddish and the Holocaust". Contemporary Literature. Vol. 42, No. 3 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 535-556.

McDowell, Linda. "Of the Road. Alternative Views of Rebellion, Resistance and The Beats". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 21, No. 2 (1996), pp. 412-419.

McClure, Michael. Scratching the Beat Surface. San Francisco: North Point, 1982.

Perkins, David. A History of Modern Poetry: Modernism and After. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap P of Harvard UP, 1987.

Prothero, Stephen. "On the Holy Road: The Beat Movement as Spiritual Protest". The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 84, No. 2 (Apr., 1991), pp. 205-222.

Stephenson, Gregory. The Daybreak Boys: Essays on the Literature of the Beat Generation. Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 1990.

Triglio, Tony. "'Strange Prophecies Anew'. Rethinking the Politics of Matter and Spirit in Ginsberg's Kaddish". American Literature, Vol. 71 nr 4 (Dec. 1998), pp. 773-795.

Watten, Barrett. "The Turn to Language and the 1960's". Source: Critical Inquiry, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 139-183.

Williams, William Carlos. "Introduction." Howl and Other Poems. By Allen Ginsberg. San Francisco: City Lights, 1956.

Knowledge

Students will be able to:

K-W04 - describe the relation between language, literature, and historical and cultural processes in USA in 1950’s on an advanced level

K-W09 identify on an advanced level the multiplicity of cultures and their complexity, cultural codes, as well as structural and institutional background of culture, with special focus on USA in 1950’s

Students will be able to:

K_U03 - analyze linguistic, literary and cultural phenomena and draw generalizations on their basis with respect to the social, historical and economic context of USA in 1950’s

K_U7 - employ modern technology for the sake of obtaining information and using various communication channels and techniques

Social competences

Students will be ready to:

K_K04 apply the skill to critically assess communicated content to think and act independently in various social situations

K_K05 function effectively in social and cultural interactions, through various forms and media, thanks to the ability to express oneself in a cohesive and lucid manner

Education at language level B2+.

- attendance

- participation in discussions

- presentations

- short written assignments

3 absences are allowed.