The Transnational Beat Generation

This collection maps the Beat Generation movement, exploring American Beat writers alongside parallel movements in other countries that shared a critique of global capitalism. Ranging from the immediate post-World War II period and continuing into the 1990s, the essays illustrate Beat participation in the global circulation of a poetics of dissent.

The Beat Generation writers and artists are typically identified as an American movement. Yet travel, Buddhism, drug experimentation, and European surrealism and romanticism were an integral part of the ethos behind the movement. This collection of essays will map writers such as Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti globally and explore parallel movements and writers in other countries. Incorporating contemporary theories of globalization and transnationalism, this insightful book provides a more nuanced understanding of both the Beats and America.This volume will look at: • Beat critiques of postwar capitalism • Beat resistance to oppressive political regimes• Beat reaction to sweeping cultural changesThe essays are written in a lively and accessible manner and the collection will serve as an introduction to Beat Studies because of its comprehensive nature. It will be a natural adoption for courses on the beats - a substantial subset of 20th-century literature courses - and will fit into 20th-century literature surveys, and courses on transnational literature, as well.