The Beat Generation The History of the world is the history not of individuals, but of groups' W'E'B

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The Beat GenerationThe History of the world is
the history not of individuals, but of
groups. W.E.B. Du Bois
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Who are the Beatniks?The Lost Generation 50s
style

• Small group of friends, later a movement
• Came of age after WWII
• Disillusioned by the Cold War unraveling of
  American Culture

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From the 50s to the 60s
1950s
1960s

• Civil rights unrest
• Sexual Revolution
• Vietnam War Protests
• Assassinations
• Cold War
• Loss of Faith

• Rise of the suburbs
• Television explosion
• McCarthy Red Scare
• Age of Conformity
• Faith in nuclear family BABY BOOM

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Who are the Beatniks?The Lost Generation 50s
style

• Wore black berets sported goatees
• Played the bongo drums
• Drank cheap Chianti smoked marijuana
• Hung out in coffee houses
• Jargon dig cool crazy!
• Small group of adult writers
• Espoused mystical detachment relaxation of
  social and sexual tensions.

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Key Figures

• Jack Kerouac On The Road, 1957
• William S. Burroughs
• Tom Wolfe The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, 1968
• Allen Ginsberg
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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Introduction to the Public

• New York Magazine This is the Beat Generation
  1952
• Kerouacs On the Road - 1957

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From Beat to Beatnik

• Herb Cain coins beatnick
• Beatific angelic revelation of self
• Beat down
• Beat (rhythm) of Jazz

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Beats vs.Tradition

• Rejected traditional poets of the era
• New language to express personal visions
• Drew upon the everyday concrete image and
  specific event
• Unconscious creation of forms
• Great difficulty getting their work into print

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Allen Ginsberg

• Born 6/3/26 in Paterson, N.J.
• Attended Columbia
• 1948 mystical visions insane asylum
• 1953 Moves to San Francisco
• 1956 - Howl
• Died 4/5/ 97

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti

• Born in Yonkers on 3/24/19
• Joined Navy
• Studied at Sorbonne, Paris
• Opened City Lights Bookstore
• Published Howl arrested with Ginsberg
• Currently runs City Lights

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• The End