The daybreak boys

In these critical essays Gregory Stephenson takes the reader on a journey through the literature of the Beat Generation: a journey encompassing that common ethos of Beat literature--the passage from darkness to light, from fragmented being toward wholeness, from Beat to Beatific. In his introduction, Stephenson provides a brief history of this literary and cultural phenomenon and establishes the basis of these authors' right to be called a "generation." He examines what sets the Beats apart from other writers of the postwar period, showing which qualities of the works of these dissimilar authors formed the nexus of a movement. He also discusses the effect they had on a very unaware and cautious public. Stephenson then provides original in-depth examinations of the writings of eight Beat authors and develops new perspectives on their work. He travels through Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend. following Kerouac's quests for identity, community, and spiritual knowledge. He examines Allen Ginsberg's use of transcendence in "Howl," discovers the Gnostic vision in William S. Burroughs' fiction, and studies the mythic, visionary power of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poetry. Stephenson also provides one of the first detailed examinations of the writings of lesser-known Beat authors: John Clellon Holmes. Gregory Corso, Richard Fariña, and Michael McClure. He explores the myth and the mystery of the literary legend of Neal Cassady. And in the conclusion Stephenson integrates the common traits of the Beat writers-- their use of primitivism, shamanism, myth and magic, spontaneity, and improvisation, all of which led them to a new idiom of consciousness and to the expansion of the parameters of American literature. --From publisher's description.