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English 350-417-001 Readings for Writers: Allen Ginsberg and The Beat Generation; Instr:
James Liddy
Course Information:
M, 7:30-10:10pm,
Curtin 466
Course Description Order of Texts:
The letters of Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac, the poetry of Amira Baraka (LeRoi Jones as he then was), Gregory Corso, Joanne Kyger, Philip Whalen, among others, various journals and autobiographical prose of, Herbert Huncke, Joyce Johnson, Kyger, Denise Levertov are particularly recommended (a Beat bibliography including biographies of Burroughs will be available). Beat writing surfaced around the figures of Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg, and a "holy family" of Bohemians that became prominent in San Francisco, in the late forties and fifties. Reflecting the change in values after WW II, the group concentrated on transforming personal and societal assumptions. Beat writing represented a new American underground whose activities included pad-making, friend-finding, drug-making, travelling, hiking, jazz-listening, and writing with an added consciousness. The course explores the context of how a generation of writers which know each other can work together and influence later groups and individual writers. No student will be allowed more than two absences. Barring emergencies,
no incompletes will be awarded. (Information on student rights and
duties is obtainable from the English Department.) Students
will write two creative works of at least ten pages, a six page critical
analysis of a Beat work, with the option of substituting a class report
on Beat writing in lieu of a critical paper (the Creative Writing pieces
should be related in content or style to some aspect of the Beat Generation,
discuss with instructor). Citations from the Internet should be checked
with published sources. Due dates for creative writing will be October
21 and December 2; October 28 for the critical paper. A final exam will
be held on the day indicated in the Schedule of Classes. Assuming
attendance is in order, grades will be: Writing 50%, Exam 30%, Discussion
and Report 20%. Beat Birth and Death dates may be festivals!!
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