Anti-Humanism in the Counterculture
This book offers a radical new reading of the 1950s and 60s American literary counterculture. Associated nostalgically with freedom of expression,romanticism, humanist ideals and progressive politics, the period was steeped too in opposite ideas
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Anti-Humanism in the Counterculture
Guy Stevenson
Anti-Humanism in the Counterculture
Guy Stevenson Goldsmiths University of London London, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-47759-2 ISBN 978-3-030-47760-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47760-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Bradley Sauter / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh for giving me the time, space and financial support to make a start on this book. My deepest thanks too to Caroline Blinder, Florian J. Seubert, Henry Mead, Sarah Garland, John Bolin, Randall Stevenson and Aaron Jaffe, for all your helpful encouragement and advice along the way.
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Contents
1 Introduction: Romanticism, Humanism and the Counterculture 1 2 Henry Miller and the Beats: An Anti-humanist Precedent 19 3 Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Their Transcendentalist Gloom 59 4 William Burroughs’ Immodest Proposal107 5 The Philosophy of Hip: Norman Mailer’s ‘Spiritual Existentialism’147 6 Conclusion: Counterculture Then and Now187 Index215
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CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Romanticism, Humanism and the Counterculture
No Bob Dylan Without Ezra Pound In 1975, Allen Ginsberg, Beat poet and elder statesman of what had recently been christened the counterculture, gave a lecture on modern poetry to students at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute, Colorado. ‘I would venture to say’, Ginsberg told his audience, ‘that there would
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