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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mortenson, Erik, 1970-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Beats (Persons).

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (242 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

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

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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].

Contents:

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.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-280-69777-6

9786613674739

0-8093-8613-5

OCLC:

856870143