Week Six: Howl, and the Generational Strategy to Cultural Work

Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at the grave of Jack Kerouac 1975 by Ken Regan

The featured work we are reading this week is the long poem, Howl by Allen Ginsberg. A version of the text is available online at this link:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15308

The link includes not only the print version of the poem but an audio recording of Allen Ginsberg reading the work. We will be considering this poem, the significance of what we came to call the "Beat" writers and the strategy of addressing a generational audience. Please read/listen to the poem before coming to class.

Required Film: Please watch Kill Your Darlings (2014) dir. John Krokidas starring Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsburg. 

We will have had two weeks since last we met so it is expected that you will have completed reading Siddhartha and posted your discussion about the experience of reading a particular passage, scene or segment of the work and your understanding of it. Feel free to express your personal connection to the portion of the text you are discussing.


Writing Assignment: Write an extended comment about a work or set of works you think embody the perspective of your generation. You might discuss what you are defining as the characteristics of your generation and how that is expressed in cultural works you respond to. Discuss a few specific works that in your opinion give "voice" to the outlooks and attitudes shared by your generation. Discuss how the specific work you've chosen is an exemplar of the characteristic(s) you've illuminated. Post your comment on Canvas in the a queue for the fourth assignment.