"Beat Generation" Literature And "New Human" Literature

It has caused widely controversy since "the Beat Generation" literature appeared in 1950s. But gradually, "Beat Generation" literature, which has the character of revolt, has experienced a process from being criticized till being confirmed. Similarly, at the end of the last century, there appeared a kind of new literature form in China: the "New Human" literature, which also experienced some kind of dramatic change from being repudiated to being extolled.As two typical examples of youth literature of revolt, "the Beat Generation" literature and "the New Human" literature provide the model for youth literature of revolt respectively under American and Chinese cultural background. Meanwhile, these two kinds of literature form respectively caused certain effect on the two different cultures: "the Beat Generation" literature brought about a kind of counter-cultural trend in American culture, while "the New Human" literature, as a true portrayal of the life of some Chinese youth who lived at the edge of the society, brought Cruel Youth Novel into forth.In this paper, having "revolt" as the center, the author will make a parallel and contrastive study on characteristics and differences of "the Beat Generation" literature and "the New Human" literature, hoping to explore some cultural sources. As the cultural type is concerned, the former has the character of counter-culture, while the latter, to some extent, belongs to subculture.