|
The Beat Generation was a group of authors whose literature explored and influenced American culture in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized throughout the 1950s. Central elements of Beat culture are rejection of standard narrative values, the spiritual quest, exploration of American and Eastern religions, rejection of materialism, explicit portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration.〔(The Beat Generation – Literature Periods & Movements )〕 Allen Ginsberg's ''Howl'' (1956), William S. Burroughs's ''Naked Lunch'' (1959) and Jack Kerouac's ''On the Road'' (1957) are among the best known examples of Beat literature.〔Charters (1992) ''The Portable Beat Reader''〕 Both ''Howl'' and ''Naked Lunch'' were the focus of obscenity trials that ultimately helped to liberalize publishing in the United States.〔Ann Charters, ''introduction'', to ''Beat Down to Your Soul'', Penguin Books (2001) ISBN 978-0-14100-151-7 p. xix "() the conclusion of the obscenity trial in San Francisco against Lawrence Ferlinghetti for publishing Ginsberg's ''Howl and Other Poems'' () in which Judge Clayton W. Horn concluded for the defendant that 'Howl' had what he called 'redeeming social content.'", p. xxxiii "After the successful ''Howl'' trial, outspoken and subversive literary magazines sprung up like wild mushrooms throughout the United States."〕〔Ted Morgan, ''Literary Outlaw'', Avon, New York, 1988. p 347, trade paper edition ISBN 0-380-70882-5 "The ruling on ''Naked Lunch'' in effect marked the end of literary censorship in the United States."〕 The members of the Beat Generation developed a reputation as new bohemian hedonists, who celebrated non-conformity and spontaneous creativity. The core group of Beat Generation authors – Herbert Huncke, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Lucien Carr, and Jack Kerouac – met in 1944 in and around the Columbia University campus in New York City. Later, in the mid-1950s, the central figures (with the exception of Burroughs and Carr) ended up together in San Francisco where they met and became friends of figures associated with the San Francisco Renaissance. In the 1960s, elements of the expanding Beat movement were incorporated into the hippie and larger counterculture movements. Neal Cassady, as the driver for Ken Kesey's bus, Further, was the primary bridge between these two generations. Allen Ginsberg's work also became an integral element of early 1960s hippie culture. ==Origin of name== Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948 to characterize a perceived underground, anti-conformist youth movement in New York.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Beat movement (American literary and social movement) -- Encyclopedia Britannica )〕 The name arose in a conversation with writer John Clellon Holmes. Kerouac allows that it was street hustler Herbert Huncke who originally used the phrase "beat", in an earlier discussion with him. The adjective "beat" could colloquially mean "tired" or "beaten down" within the African-American community of the period and had developed out of the image "beat to his socks",〔"''Beat to his socks'', which was once the black's most total and despairing image of poverty, was transformed into a thing called the Beat Generation..." James Baldwin, "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What is it?," ''The New York Times,'' July 29, 1979〕〔"The word 'beat' was primarily in use after World War II by jazz musicians and hustlers as a slang term meaning down and out, or poor and exhausted. The jazz musician Mezz Mezzrow combined it with other words, like 'dead beat' ..." Ann Charters, ''The Portable Beat reader'', 1992, ISBN 0-670-83885-3, ISBN 978-0-670-83885-1〕〔"Hebert Huncke picked up the word () from his show business friends on of Near North Side of Chicago, and in the fall of 1945 he introduced the word to William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac." Steve Watson, ''The Birth of the Beat Generation" (1995), p.3 ISBN 0-375-70153-2〕 but Kerouac appropriated the image and altered the meaning to include the connotations "upbeat", "beatific", and the musical association of being "on the beat".〔The exuberance is much stronger in the published ''On the Road'', than in its manuscript (in scroll-form). Luc Sante: "In the scroll the use of the word “holy” must be 80 percent less than in the novel, and psalmodic references to the author’s unique generation are down by at least two-thirds; uses of the word “beat,” for that matter, clearly favor the exhausted over the beatific." ''New York Times Book Review'' August 19, 2007. ()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Beat Generation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|