Historical Influences of Ginsberg's "Howl"
Post-War America entered the 1950s with a somberness concerning its previous decades, comprised of memories and fear of economic depression, communism, nuclear warfare, and the like. Policy on the national scale would forevermore be obligated to consider the potentially mortal consequences of any choice. The general public began to see something distasteful in any possible future as well as in its own present, and many chose to cling to the illusion of the American utopia. However, where society scrambled to return to its original security, emerging literary figures such as Ginsberg chose instead to critique society itself, rather than the objects society was expected to fear.
An extremely blatant device seen in “Howl” is the advocacy of homosexual equality via the blunt and relatively vulgar depiction of homosexual acts within the text. Though “Howl” did indeed ‘shock the nation,’ it was calling out the homosexuality already present in America rather than calling for it. The radical and highly criticized Kinsey Reports, conducted during this period to investigate American sexual behavior, resulted in thirty-seven per cent of males admitting to a homosexual experience and ten per cent claiming to be primarily homosexual for at least a three year period sometime in their adult lives. This study, also deemed controversial and obscene by the general public, like “Howl” (although to a lesser extent), was contemporary with or even possibly helpful to the homophile movement. (Dunar)
The fifties were the beginning of the homophile movement, the first step in the development of gay rights activism that would later form as a cohesive voice in the civil rights movement, especially during the sixties. The homophiles’ main hurdle from the very start was the religious stigma towards homosexual behavior, the main opposition of the gay rights movement today. The goal of homophile activism was always to dispel all negative sentiment towards the homosexual identity, like most all minority movements to their own identities. Protests against discrimination were frequent since the sixties, and public demonstrations across the nation stressed the argument that as American citizens, homosexuals deserved total equality by the nature of America itself. The voice of the homosexual advocates in the civil rights movement persevered throughout and past the decade, however the majority of sodomy laws were not repealed until after the seventies. (Hall; Dunar)
An extremely blatant device seen in “Howl” is the advocacy of homosexual equality via the blunt and relatively vulgar depiction of homosexual acts within the text. Though “Howl” did indeed ‘shock the nation,’ it was calling out the homosexuality already present in America rather than calling for it. The radical and highly criticized Kinsey Reports, conducted during this period to investigate American sexual behavior, resulted in thirty-seven per cent of males admitting to a homosexual experience and ten per cent claiming to be primarily homosexual for at least a three year period sometime in their adult lives. This study, also deemed controversial and obscene by the general public, like “Howl” (although to a lesser extent), was contemporary with or even possibly helpful to the homophile movement. (Dunar)
The fifties were the beginning of the homophile movement, the first step in the development of gay rights activism that would later form as a cohesive voice in the civil rights movement, especially during the sixties. The homophiles’ main hurdle from the very start was the religious stigma towards homosexual behavior, the main opposition of the gay rights movement today. The goal of homophile activism was always to dispel all negative sentiment towards the homosexual identity, like most all minority movements to their own identities. Protests against discrimination were frequent since the sixties, and public demonstrations across the nation stressed the argument that as American citizens, homosexuals deserved total equality by the nature of America itself. The voice of the homosexual advocates in the civil rights movement persevered throughout and past the decade, however the majority of sodomy laws were not repealed until after the seventies. (Hall; Dunar)
written by Nicholas Wilcox
Works Cited
Dunar, Andrew J. America in the Fifties. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2006. Print.
Hall, Simon. "The American Gay Rights Movement and Patriotic Protest." Journal of the History of Sexuality 19.3 (2010): 536-562. Print. |
The Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance is the name given to the period from the end of World War I and through the middle of the 1930s Depression, during which the hardships faced by a group of African-American writers in the North influenced the production of literature in the four prominent genres of poetry, fiction, drama, and essay. African-Americans had endured centuries of slavery and the struggle for abolition; however the end of bondage had not brought the freedom many had envisioned. Instead, white supremacy was quickly restored to the South, where most African Americans lived. In the decades immediately following World War I, over 6 million African Americans migrated from the Southern states to the Northern, Midwestern and Western regions of the United States. The recently migrated sought after and found both economic and artistic opportunities that were previously unavailable to them in the suppressed environment of the Southern region. Many of these migrants discovered they had shared common experiences in their past histories and their uncertain present circumstances. These artists banded together in their cultural similarities, creating poetry, essays, music, and books that celebrated their heritages and continued to shape decades upon decades of both literary and political movements. After World War II the Beat Generation sprang into life, influenced by the yearning for racial and gender equality demonstrated by the Harlem renaissance writers, as well as the blues and jazz styles of those writers. Jack Kerouac claimed that musicians such as Charlie Parker are “as important as Beethoven” in Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues. Kerouac, who was primarily influenced by jazz musicians in the Harlem Renaissance, was also highly influential in the works of Allen Ginsberg (Parini and Millier 583). Ginsberg’s use of a gritty vernacular and an improvisational rhythmical style ignored the “meaningless grammatical rules” used by traditional poets which seemed to them to be amateur. However it was this voice that had been developed with the influence of the Harlem Renaissance that made Ginsberg’s works significant to the Beat Generation (Matterson).
written by Emily Wilkins
Works Cited
Matterson, Stephen. "The Harlem Renaissance." American Literature: The Essential Glossary. London: 2003.
Parini, Jay, and Brett C. Millier. The Columbia History of American Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. 583. Print. |
Iconoclastic Art in the Twentieth Century
Early twentieth-century art was largely characterized by disillusioned anti-establishment thoughts that led to movements against mainstream culture. Dada was one of the earliest movements in the twentieth century and grew out of the abject horror many artists felt at the extreme carnage of the First World War. These artists rejected nationalism and the confining societies that produced such bloodshed. Dada ‘anti-art’ caused people to question their socialized morality and was one of the earliest forms of radical, innovative Avant Gardism. Born of Dadaists, Avant Garde would go on to influence artists throughout the twentieth century and shock the public for decades.
The genesis of Dada can be traced to the opening of the Cabaret Voltaire by Hugo Ball in 1916. Two years into a world war that did not live up to naive expectations of a ‘gentlemen’s game,’ the cabaret’s name was no accident. Voltaire was an artist whose work offered a cynical social commentary about colonialism, the Catholic Church, and war to eighteenth-century Europe. Like Voltaire, twentieth-century Dadaists were deeply dissatisfied with the status quo. They were astonished by the atrocities of WWI and many artists traced the origins of the conflict to nationalism and other existing social attitudes. Post-war capitalism produced an affluent bourgeoise that dominated society and impressed their norms and taboos upon the proletariat who sought to be like the bourgeoise, resulting in a ‘mass culture.’ To counteract this, Dada rejected reason, a clear narrative, and institutional norms. Hugo Ball and many of his associates pushed the movement forward with poetry readings and artwork displayed in the Cabaret. These readings eventually gave birth to sound art—the idea that any sound or text can be a performance. Sound art destroyed structure in favor of visceral expression, just as much of Dada poetry deviated from existing structures to more fully convey expression. Similar to sound art which was open to any sound that one hears, Dada texts were realist in the sense that they included anything and everything which one writes.
Much of Dada art was dedicated to shocking the bourgeoise into recognizing flaws in the status quo and realizing that art was not confined to lofty ideas and classical images. According to Hans Richter, “Dada was not art, it was ‘anti-art.’ Everything for which art stood, Dada represented the opposite. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend,” (qtd. in Matteson). The First Dada Manifesto by Hugo Ball was released in Zurich in 1916. In his manifesto, Ball professes the philosophy of Dada which consists of three major points. "1. Dada is international in perspective and seeks to bridge differences, 2. Dada is antagonistic toward established society… and 3. Dada …seeks to change conventional attitudes and practices in aesthetics, society, and morality," (qtd. in Niles). While international interest is not alien to the current reader, in a pre-globalized world, nationalism was the driving force of many citizens. In response to WWI, Dada’s international perspective and antagonism to existing culture seems like a breath of fresh air, yet it was shocking at the time.
Avant Garde art was born of the Dada movement and pushed the boundaries of what was socially acceptable as art by defying conformity to mass culture. It was both radical and alien to twentieth century sensibilities and critics at the time characterized it as ‘base’. The Avant Garde movement employed realism and surrealism to shock the viewer into critical thought. The movement’s disturbing pieces were often social criticisms and as a result, many pieces were censored or edited before release. An example of Avant Garde poetry that faced censorship is Ginsberg’s trenchant critique of linguistic taboo and societal norms in “Howl.” Publishing this poem resulted in an obscenity trial and officials seized printed copies of the book as well as imprisoned the bookstore manager where it was sold. Only after nine literary experts testified that “Howl” was of ‘redeeming social importance’ was it allowed to become available for mainstream consumption.
Duchamp's "Fountain"
The genesis of Dada can be traced to the opening of the Cabaret Voltaire by Hugo Ball in 1916. Two years into a world war that did not live up to naive expectations of a ‘gentlemen’s game,’ the cabaret’s name was no accident. Voltaire was an artist whose work offered a cynical social commentary about colonialism, the Catholic Church, and war to eighteenth-century Europe. Like Voltaire, twentieth-century Dadaists were deeply dissatisfied with the status quo. They were astonished by the atrocities of WWI and many artists traced the origins of the conflict to nationalism and other existing social attitudes. Post-war capitalism produced an affluent bourgeoise that dominated society and impressed their norms and taboos upon the proletariat who sought to be like the bourgeoise, resulting in a ‘mass culture.’ To counteract this, Dada rejected reason, a clear narrative, and institutional norms. Hugo Ball and many of his associates pushed the movement forward with poetry readings and artwork displayed in the Cabaret. These readings eventually gave birth to sound art—the idea that any sound or text can be a performance. Sound art destroyed structure in favor of visceral expression, just as much of Dada poetry deviated from existing structures to more fully convey expression. Similar to sound art which was open to any sound that one hears, Dada texts were realist in the sense that they included anything and everything which one writes.
Much of Dada art was dedicated to shocking the bourgeoise into recognizing flaws in the status quo and realizing that art was not confined to lofty ideas and classical images. According to Hans Richter, “Dada was not art, it was ‘anti-art.’ Everything for which art stood, Dada represented the opposite. Where art was concerned with traditional aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend,” (qtd. in Matteson). The First Dada Manifesto by Hugo Ball was released in Zurich in 1916. In his manifesto, Ball professes the philosophy of Dada which consists of three major points. "1. Dada is international in perspective and seeks to bridge differences, 2. Dada is antagonistic toward established society… and 3. Dada …seeks to change conventional attitudes and practices in aesthetics, society, and morality," (qtd. in Niles). While international interest is not alien to the current reader, in a pre-globalized world, nationalism was the driving force of many citizens. In response to WWI, Dada’s international perspective and antagonism to existing culture seems like a breath of fresh air, yet it was shocking at the time.
Avant Garde art was born of the Dada movement and pushed the boundaries of what was socially acceptable as art by defying conformity to mass culture. It was both radical and alien to twentieth century sensibilities and critics at the time characterized it as ‘base’. The Avant Garde movement employed realism and surrealism to shock the viewer into critical thought. The movement’s disturbing pieces were often social criticisms and as a result, many pieces were censored or edited before release. An example of Avant Garde poetry that faced censorship is Ginsberg’s trenchant critique of linguistic taboo and societal norms in “Howl.” Publishing this poem resulted in an obscenity trial and officials seized printed copies of the book as well as imprisoned the bookstore manager where it was sold. Only after nine literary experts testified that “Howl” was of ‘redeeming social importance’ was it allowed to become available for mainstream consumption.
Avant Garde poetry often contains recoil from mass culture instituted in a capitalist society. It rejects norms as phony, arising from a consumer culture that copies true artistic devices to market something. It is the antithesis to all things ‘kitsch-y’. Advant Garde art, such as Marcel Duchamp’s iconic “Fountain,” was an early example of ‘found’ art—art that was not created, but rather found in everyday objects such as a toilet urinal. Duchamp selected a piece normally confined behind a bathroom door to shock viewers into a broadened consideration of art and a rejection of the idea that some things, such as a urinal, cannot be art. Duchamp’s piece illustrated the artistic realism that can be found in other Avant Garde pieces such as “Howl” by Ginsberg. In “Howl,” Ginsberg highlighted the profane nature of reality to induce the reader to examine mass culture. Avant Garde art was truly radical, thrusting the mundane and profane into public consumption, and shocking the public of the twentieth century.
written by Sarah Kuxhausen
Works Cited
Lenhart, Katie. "The Avant-Garde Movement." Presbyterian College Writing Center, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://web.presby.edu/writingcenter/newsletter/avant-garde.html>.
Niles, Steven. "The Music of Montparnasse Ca. 1920." University of Southern California, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www-scf.usc.edu/~sniles/>. Matteson, Richard L. "Matteson Art." Dada. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. <http://www.mattesonart.com/dada.aspx>. |
Your essay goes here.
written by Rehan Quraishi
Works Cited
You can let me know when you're done and I can come fix the format.
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