Decoding The Beat Generation

As a quite disputable literary group, the Beat Generation never gets a definition of status and contribution in American literary history. While disapproved by the mainstream critics, the Beat writers as Kerouac and Ginsberg were iconed by the youth counterculture. In China, this group was seldom mentioned before 1980s.Even if mentioned, it always went hand in hand with decadence and degeneracy. Then question still remained is what's the true color of the Beat Generation. The view of this thesis is that the assessment of the Beat Generation is not an issue between right and wrong, but one of perspective and stands.By choosing two Beats' classic works, On the Road and Howl, mis thesis tries to carry out a survey of the Beat Generation from different perspectives. The main target of mis survey is to expose an understandable Beat Generation.The thesis is divided into six parts: The first part is a brief introduction to the Beats' classic works, namely On the Road and Howl and the relevant literary criticism. The second part is a sketch of the relevant backgrounds that produce the Beat Generation. The third part is devoted to a survey of the philosophical and aesthetic source of the Beat Generation. The aim of this survey is American Transcendentalism and modern Existentialism. The fourth part is a thematic analysis based on the textual analysis of on the Road and Howl. By doing so, the thesis tries to discover the spiritual essence of the Beats' literary creation. The fifth part is a survey of technical characteristics of the Beat writing. The survey covers the spontaneous writing that is advocated by the Beat writers, the visionalized and actionalized unfolding of Beats' writing and the characterization of anti-hero. The sixth part is the conclusion of the thesis. Based on the survey above, the thesis draws the following conclusion that under such a milieu of the 1950s and by holding the philosophical and aesthetical view drawn from Transcendentalism and Existentialism, the Beat Generation can find no way out except in their cultural and literary rebellion.