Course Description

(left to right: Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs)

We'll narrow our focus this quarter to a short (but tremendously important) period in postwar American history where a burgeoning countercultural movement — know as The Beat Generation — radically changed the course of the 20th century, openly defying the conventions of society's aesthetics, morality and politics, and in the process, breathing joy and life into a stoic literature.

The Beat Generation first entered the public sphere with the publication of Allen Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems in 1956 (a book which would be tried for obscenity and ultimately vindicated).  Other germinal books followed, including Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) and William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch (1959) by which point this core group of New York City writers had been joined by members of a lively San Francisco poetry scene (including Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen and Lew Welch).  This term, however, our focus will be on the group's first (and some would argue, purest) incarnation: the small New York cadre of Kerouac,  Ginsberg,  Burroughs, Neal Cassady and Gregory Corso.  While the Beats' heyday was relatively brief, their influence long outlived their era (and in some cases, the writers themselves), directly inspiring bohemian subcultures worldwide (including hippies, Yippies and much more) and opening up the possibilities of American literature to allow for more creative and frank expression.  The Free Speech, Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Queer Rights, Anti-war and Environmental movements can all trace their origins (in some part) to advances made within the literary sphere by the authors we'll be studying this quarter, and undoubtedly, we live in an era shaped by their ideas.

If the following topics (which we'll be discussing at some depth this quarter) offend you, it might be best to transfer to another Freshmen Seminar (occasionally, there's one offered on The Hobbit):

• hitchhiking
• drug use
• sex
• excessive consumption of fossil fuels
• bebop jazz
• Mexico
  
• infidelity
• insanity
• gay sex
• Walt Whitman
  
• junkyards
• drug smuggling
• insane mothers
• crows
  
• drug dealing
• aliens
• insects
• alien sex
• Tangiers
  
• the Titanic disaster
• mind control
• thievery
• marriage
  
• the atomic bomb
• religious visions
• the Vietnam War
• time travel
• Wichita
• Prague
• free speech
  
• abortion
• rock and roll
• and probably more drugs
• and definitely more sex

If, on the other hand, this is appealing to you, then you're in the right place (and probably just a little off in the head).  Welcome!