A countercultural Vision of America: Allen Ginsberg and the Beat

Abstract

El trabajo se basa en una defensa del impacto de la literatura Beat en la cultura americana de los años 50 así como en años posteriores. Para ello, se centra en la figura de Allen Ginsberg y en sus poemas “Howl” y “America”. La publicación de Howl and Other Poems hizo mella en la sociedad del momento por su mordiente crítica al sistema de valores americano; el libro fue sujeto a un juicio que sentó precedente en la historia de la censura literaria. El punto final del desarrollo del trabajo será un repaso por dicho juicio.

This thesis is based on a defense of the impact that Beat literature made on the culture of the 1950s’ America, as well as on later years. For this purpose, the work focuses on the figure of Allen Ginsberg as well as on his poems “Howl” and “America”. The publication of Howl and Other Poems caused quite a fuss in the society of its time due to its cutting criticism to American values; the book was subject to a trial that set a precedent in the history of literary censorship. The final section in this thesis will be an overview of that trial.