English 461-001
Writers in American Literature, 1900 to the Present: The Beat Poets
Instr: Liddy, James
Office: CRT 517; 229-5441
e-mail: liddy@uwm.edu
Office hours: R; 3:00-4:15pm
Course Information: TR; 12:30-1:45pm; AUP 104
Course Description
Writing shifted in the fifties to concentrate on the figures of Jack Kerouac and a "holy family" of Bohemians. Reflecting the changes in values after WWII, this group involved itself in transforming personal and societal assumptions. Beat writing represented a new underground whose activities included pad-making, friend-finding, drug-ingesting, traveling, jazz, etc. At the same time, West Coast poets in San Francisco were exploring similar alternatives in writing and behavior. Some of these writers imagined a new centre of culture that pulled away from New York.
No more than four unexcused absences will be allowed, incompletes are discouraged. There will be four three page papers on Jeffers, Snyder, Kerouac, and Kyger due on February 8, February 22, March 8, and March 29. There will be a final exam in the class on the remaining texts on May 3. A final paper of six pages will be due on May 8; in lieu of a paper students may submit a portfolio of poems (ten pages). There may be exercises and some work shopping in class. Students will give a ten minute report on a Beat or San Francisco Renaissance writer not on the course list. Assuming attendance is in order, grades will be: Exam 25%, response papers 25%, final paper/portfolio 25%, discussion including report 25%.
Texts:
Robinson Jeffers, The Wild God of the World
Gary Snyder, Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems
Jack Kerouac, Dharma Bums
Allen Ginsberg, Howl & Kaddish
Joanne Kyger, Strange Big Moon
Jack Spicer, Collected Books (Xerox)
Joanne Kyger, As Ever: Selected Poems
Jack Kerouac, Tristessa
Important other writers to be consulted include Robert Duncan, John Wieners, Diane di Prima, Philip Whalen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Stan Persky, George Stanley, Joyce Johnson (a bibliography including criticism will be handed out).
If nothing happens it is possible to make things happen ... Spicer
