Beat Poetry

Together with Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, Alan Ginsberg was a founding member of the Beat Generation in the late 1950s. The Beats questioned the certitudes of consensus liberalism, highlighting the spiritual poverty of consumer culture. Many of the cultural trends we associate with the late 1960s, from free love to drug use, were initially explored by Beat writers and artists. Ten years later, Ginsberg served as an elder statesman to the Hippies of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco during the Summer of Love (1968).

Reading:

• Alan Ginsberg, Howl (1956) (link). Note: you may find it valuable to listen to Ginsberg read his poem, in a 1959 recording: YouTube.
• Alan Ginsberg, “Footnote to Howl,” printed on the page immediately following: link.

  Writing: Respond to ONE of the following prompts. Keep your response short, posting as a reply under the appropriate heading in the comments section:

  1. Quote and respond to a striking image or phrase from the poem.
  2. The poem opens with something like a howl. But what’s the emotional valence of this howl: rage? joy? something else? Explain your answer by quotation of a key line or phrase.
  3. How does the poem’s emotional valence shift in its later sections? In your answer, feel free to focus on any one of the later sections, including the “Footnote.” Explain your answer by quotation of a key line or phrase.

Artistic Transformation and Political Activism

Viewing: Corita Kent:

• Corita Kent, that they may have life (1964)
• Corita Kent, Rainbow Swash (1971)
• Corita Kent, Love stamp (1985)

Viewing: Jasper Johns, Flag Paintings:

• Jasper Johns, Flag (1954)
• Jasper Johns, Threee Flags (1958)
• Jasper Johns, Flag Moratorium (1969)

Viewing: Jimi Hendrix, “Star Spangled Banner” (leads into “Purple Haze”) performed at Woodstock, Aug 1969.

Writing: Respond to ONE of the following prompts. Keep your response short, posting as a reply under the appropriate heading in the comments section:

1. Many of these artworks rework preexisting culture. Focusing on one in particular, give a rich description of what it adds, subtracts, or otherwise does to transform the original.
2. Identify one of these pieces that strikes you as turning non-art into art. What’s at stake, culturally, in this act of transformation?
3. Identify one of these pieces that strikes you as voicing a political message. What’s the message, and how is it being voiced?