A Study Of The Influence Of Zen On The American Beat Poets From The Zen Spirit In The Poems Of Kenneth Rexroth

The “Beat movement” in the United States in the 1950 s was not only a literary movement,but also a social and cultural movement.In this movement,the “Beat generation”sought the fulcrum and inspiration for reform in the heterogeneous culture represented by Zen.For the “Beat generation”,the identity of object and self and the integrate harmony in Zen has deeply influenced the life style,life philosophy,aesthetic idea,creative idea and so on of them.They used Zen as an ideological weapon,strongly criticized the rationalist tradition in Western modern civilization,regained their spiritual beliefs,and promoted the development of Zen in the United States.This paper takes the influence of Zen on Kenneth Rexroth,the pioneer of the “Beat generation”,as the research object,and adopts the methods of social and historical criticism,comparative influence study and Textual studies,to summarize the influence of Zen on the Beat poets.The first chapter of the thesis gives a very detailed discussion on the “Beat Movement”and the “Beat generation” poets,and also explains why this article chooses Kenneth Rexroth as the object.The second chapter firstly traces the origin of the influence of Zen on the Beat poets through the introduction of Zen into America and the background of the times when the Beat poets lost their spiritual belief in the face of social difficulties,in combination with the ideological foundation of the meeting point between Transcendentalism and Zen,and points out that the acceptance of Zen by the Beat poets is inevitable.Then explores the relationship between Rexroth and Zen,starting from Rexroth’s ill-luck life experience and the spiritual crisis brought to him by the American society in the 1950 s,and makes a detailed textual research on the convergence point between Zen and Rexroth.The third chapter describes Rexroth’s acceptance of Zen’s theory of “Liberation theory”,“Ontology”,and “State theory” in combination with his specific poems.On Ontology of Zen,Rexroth admits that the Original Mind is universal,clear,complete and unshakable.In the Liberation theory,Kenneth Rexroth accepted that the main approach to enlightenment was to discover our original mind.In the Realm theory,Rexroth incorporated several Zen states into his poems.The fourth chapter,based on the second and third chapters,summarizes the influence of Zen on the Beat poets,mainly including the influence on ideology,literary creation and finally on the social order.On the basis of summarizing this paper,the conclusion part summarizes the deeper significance of the study: the spread of Zen in The United States,the spiritual difficulties suffered by the Beat poets after World War II,and the influence of transcendentalism provide the suitable soil and climate for the fusion of the two cultures.Through Zen,the Beat poets expressed their desire to oppose the orthodox literary system,deconstruct the realistic order and realize spiritual freedom.This kind of learning and absorption promotes the interaction and communication between eastern and western cultures.At the same time,it also has a good reference significance for other civilizations to get out of their own predicament.