World Beats: Beat Generation Writing and the Worlding of U.S. Literature (Re-Mapping the Transnational: A Dartmouth Series in American Studies)

This fascinating book explores Beat Generation writing from a transnational perspective, using the concept of worlding to place Beat literature in conversation with a far-reaching network of cultural and political formations. Countering the charge that the Beats abroad were at best naïve tourists seeking exoticism for exoticism's sake, World Beats finds that these writers propelled a highly politicized agenda that sought to use the tools of the earlier avant-garde to undermine Cold War and postcolonial ideologies and offer a new vision of engaged literature. With fresh interpretations of central Beat authors Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs - as well as usually marginalized writers like Philip Lamantia, Ted Joans, and Brion Gysin - World Beats moves beyond national, continental, or hemispheric frames to show that embedded within Beat writing is an essential universality that brought America to the world and the world to American literature. This book presents an original treatment that will attract a broad spectrum of scholars. Read more Continue reading Read less REVIEW
Fazzino puts Beat Generation writing in an international perspective, considering how it is "worlded." He is good on the developing world influences on William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Jack Kerouac. He provides the most extended treatment to date on the work of Philip Lamantia, and he is the first critic to scrutinize Gysin's little-known novel The Process. This is a useful contribution to the growing critical discussion of the Beats as transnational writers. . . .Recommended. Choice" --This text refers to an alternate kindleedition edition. REVIEW
"Jimmy Fazzino has written a provocative book that brings the Beat writers into discussions of global U.S. literary studies. He makes a compelling case that we understand the subterranean connections, transnational itineraries, and poetic aspirations of both major and minor figures of the Beat generation as a worldliness that in turn reorients critical understanding of midcentury U.S. literature." (Brian T. Edwards, author of After the American Century: The Ends of U.S. Culture in the Middle East)

"Theoretically sophisticated and critically informed, World Beats is a rich work of erudition and also a passionate engagement with cultural history that sets a new standard for transnational readings of Beat writings." (Oliver Harris, professor of American literature at Keele University and president of the European Beat Studies Network) --This text refers to an alternate kindleedition edition. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JIMMY FAZZINO is a lecturer in the literature department and writing program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. --This text refers to an alternate kindleedition edition. Read more Continue reading Read less