Beat Generation

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

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The Beat Generation was a small group of loyal, intricately connected writers and the name given by those writers to describe certain counter-cultural characteristics of American post-war youth during the 1940s and 50s. The Beats wrote about their personal lives and attempts to engage in heightened experiences through an intensely frenetic and exploratory bohemian lifestyle. Much of what defines the Beats and their writing can be seen as a defiant reaction against the largely conformist attitudes of the post-war decades. The beginnings of the Beat generation can be traced back to the mid-1940s, to a closely knit group of young intellectuals centered around the Manhattan campus of Columbia University; this then evolved into a popular …

4174 words

Citation: Donahue, Tim. "Beat Generation". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 April 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=113, accessed 07 October 2024.]

113 Beat Generation 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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