1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910817936403321

Autore

Mortenson Erik <1970->

Titolo

Capturing the beat moment : cultural politics and the poetics of presence / / Erik Mortenson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Carbondale [Ill.], : Southern Illinois University Press, c2011

ISBN

1-280-69777-6

9786613674739

0-8093-8613-5

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (242 p.)

Disciplina

810.9/0054

Soggetti

Beats (Persons)

American literature - 20th century - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: rethinking the beats -- Being present: authenticity in postwar America -- The visionary state: uniting past, present, and future -- Immanence and transcendence: Reich, orgasm, and the body -- Recording the moment: the role of the photograph in beat representation -- Getting together: heterotopia and the moment as a social site -- Conclusion: making the most of the moment.

Sommario/riassunto

This book investigates the cultural construction of immediacy in Beat writing. It places an expanded canon of Beat writers in an early postmodern context that highlights their importance in American poetics and outlines the effects of gender and race on Beat writing in the postwar years. Mortenson argues that Beat writers focused on action, desire, and spontaneity to establish an authentic connection to the world around them. He challenges the stereotype of the Beats as simply timeless hipsters by demonstrating their importance to our understanding of the changes occurring in America in the middle of the twentieth century.--[book cover].