Beat-Generation1垮掉的一代(英美文学).ppt

Like the “Lost Generation” of the 1920s, the American “Beat Generation” of the 1950s names both a literary current and a broader cultural phenomenon or mood. Rejecting the conformism and stress on “normality” of the Truman and Eisenhower years, the Beats emphasized an openness to varieties of experience beyond the limits of middle-class society; they explored the cultural “underground” of bebop jazz(比博普爵士乐 ) ,drug use, sexuality, and non-Western religions. The Beat Generation: Why?The Counter Cultural Chain of Influence!William Wordsworth, a Romantic poetJack KerouacBob DylanThe Beats were part of a “countercultural” movement. This means that the members of the Beat Generation shared ideas and values that did not coincide with mainstream social values. Earlier countercultures such as the European Romantics and Bohemians influenced the Beat Generation, just as the Beats would influence the Hippies in the United States.The Beat Generation: When?The New York Beats met and wrote their most productive work in the late 1940s and 1950s. They were responding to a number of cultural events and attitudes, the most notable being World War II, and the ultra-conservative middle class.1950s NYCNuclear Family1950s Technology!The Beat Generation: Who?Pictured from left to right is Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs. Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs are the principal literary figures of the New York Beat Movement.The Beat Generation: Where?Greenwich Village, NYCThe founding members of the Beat Generation met in New York City. Kerouac and Ginsberg both attended Columbia University in New York, and Burroughs (the eldest of the three) was a Harvard graduate.MEMBERS The original Beat Generation writers met in New York: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, (in 1948) and later (in 1950) Gregory Corso (they are sometimes called the New York Beats though only Corso was from New York).Beat ,What?!?Being tired, “down and out”, or even temporarily defeatedUpon further examination, Jack Kerouac (the unofficial spokesman of the Beats) added other sometimes paradoxical or ironic meanings: A musical connotation: as in being “on the beat”. The Beat Generation was influenced heavily by the popular music of the time bebop, and later Jazz.A spiritual meaning: “beatific”, which is literally experiencing or bestowing celestial joy, or resembling an angel or a saint.Jack Kerouac He was born Jean-Louis Kerouac in 1922. His parents were French Canadian, and consequently young Jack learned English as second language. At four, his beloved brother Gerard died of a fever, and it had a profound impact on Jack. Jack was raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, and was a gifted athlete as a youth, earning him a scholarship to Columbia University. Jack KerouacAfter being discharged from the Navy, Jack roamed the United States and Mexico, by car and bus when possible, but also by hitchhiking and as an illegal passenger on trains. It was these experiences, as well as a friendship with Neal Cassady that would provide the material for his most famous novel, On The Road. Though he completed On The Road in two drug and coffee fueled weeks in 1948, it would not be published until 1957.Cassady and KerouacOn The Road On The Road is the first time that Kerouacs unique style is recognizable. The kind of free-flowing stream of consciousness writing he promoted was identified as “spontaneous prose”. This was based around the theory of first thought=best thought, and because of this philosophy, Kerouac rarely edited his work. He expounds on his writing technique in other works,Allen Ginsberg Ginsberg was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Paterson. His father was a poet and high school teacher. Ginsbergs mother was an active member of the Communist Party and often took Ginsberg and his brother Eugene to party meetings. Ginsberg later said that his mother Made up bedtime stories that all went something like: The good king rode forth from his castle, saw the suffering workers and healed them. Allen GinsbergAllen was enrolled in Columbia University, which put him in the right place at the right time to meet the other Beats. The youngest of the crew, he was perhaps the most impressionable. Ginsberg and Burroughs are in the center.Allen Ginsberg“Howl” deals very frankly with drugs, sex, and the grittier side of city living. Because of its language and subject matter, customs officials seized all copies of it, which led to a 1957 obscenity(猥亵;淫秽 ) trial. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Howl was once again allowed to be sold. This landmark case set a precedent against censorship that has had a huge effect on the literature we are able to read today.The obscenity trial for “Howl”William BurroughsThe oldest Beat, Burroughs was born in 1914 in St. Louis Missouri. His family was relatively affluent; his grandfather was the inventor of the adding machine. He graduated from Harvard in 1936. In 1943, he moves to New York, where he meets Kerouac and Ginsberg.William BurroughsBurroughs is known for his experimental style. The setting of his novels are usually nightmarish, and occasionally wildly humorous. They are also marked by explicit mention of drugs and sex.Cover of Burroughs Naked Lunch, which was also made into a film in 1991.William BurroughsBurroughs was himself a drug addict, notably heroin. His drug experiences fueled his writing, and after he got sober, he wrote Junkie, a bizarre and hallucinatory work.Book Cover for JunkieWilliam BurroughsThough openly homosexual, Burroughs married a woman and moved with her to Mexico, a favorite Beat destination. While performing a William Tell gag in 1951, Burroughs accidentally shot his wife in the head, and that injury would prove fatal. Burroughs being questioned for the murder of his wife.William BurroughsLater in life Burroughs wandered through the Amazon in South America, experimenting with newer and stranger drugs. This time inspired The Yage Letters. He maintained a correspondence with Ginsberg, which has been recently published.Cover of The Yage LettersBurroughs in the AmazonWilliam BurroughsWilliam Burroughs died in 1997, leaving a legacy of experimental but highly influential and important prose.David Bowie andWilliam BurroughsBeat GenerationBeat GenerationLost GenerationLost GenerationTimeIn the 1950sIn the 1920sBack GroundPost WWPost WWOriginJack Kerouac introduced the phrase Beat Generation in 1948Gertrude Stein. pointed to Hemingway.Forms of rebellionTheThe lostlost generationgeneration didnt care about anything. But they were not negative .Under thethe loss apperance, they were looking for something and pursuit of personal freedom.Beat GenerationGeneration was crazy and abnormal, They discarded material, fame , contempted for thethe countrys policy and hated thethe police. In thethe eyes of ordinary people, they were degenerate and hopeless people.But their crazy actions expressed thethe protest against thethe mainstream culture and thethe thethe pursuit of freedom.“Lost Generation and Beat Generation, is the two windows that American society at different stages show the world .So we can better understand the social and ideological conditions. Meanwhile, we can have a complete understanding of the American society and literature. Although somewhat obscure in todays literary world, the Beat Generation is one of only two truly American literary movements in history. The Beats were hugely culturally influential and incredibly innovative and courageous in their literary style and content.Conclusion结束结束