Rebel Poets Of 1950S Essays - Counterculture Of The 1960s

Rebel Poets Of 1950S Rebel Poets of the 1950s America demands a poetry that is bold, modern and all-surrounding and kosmical, as she is herself. Although Walt Whitman wrote that prescription shortly after the Civil War, it also vividly describes the generation of American poets who came of age after World War II. Particularly during moments of cultural change, poets have joined artists on the front lines of expanding consciousness by forging a vernacular language that gives expression to contemporary life. One such shift in poetry occurred at the time of World War I, and another major shift took place during the decade after the Second World War. The 1950s are stereotypically represented as a time of conformity and unclouded prosperity--a mixture of Ozzie and Harriet, hula hoops, suburban tract homes, and shopping malls--along with the political anxiety imposed by McCarthyism. During such a period of apparent hegemony, the poets presented in this exhibition became a collective force that stood outside of these larger societal tr ends. The avant-garde is never anything but a community of particular sympathy, observed poet Jonathan Williams. It is the total locale of America that produces the culture. The Rebel Poets of the 1950s have been grouped into four overlapping constellations: the Beat Generation, the San Francisco Renaissance, the Black Mountain poets, and the New York School poets. Together they formed, in Allen Ginsberg's words, the united phalanx, whose unity owed more to a collective feeling of embattlement than it did to unified poetics. At the time, many of these writers were called anti-intellectuals, destroyers of language, and literary juvenile delinquents. These writers actually read voraciously--both classical and modern literature--and pursued the perennial avant-garde imperative to reinvigorate literary culture by destroying the hackneyed and moribund. Ironically, the reigning tradition that now seemed ripe for attack was modernism, along with the strictly formalist New Criticism that had become entrenched in the universities and in literary journals. In an attempt to widen the range of modern poetry, the rebel poets of the 1950s emphasized many elements that were new or had been previously excised: the bardic spoken voice, links to jazz and spontaneous composition, open verse forms and rhythms, derangement of the senses as a stimulus to creativity, confessional candor, and content that embraced political issues, Buddhism, and the natural environment. Perhaps as important as their loosely shared poetics was a sense of personal friendship that transcended geography. Frank O'Hara called it hands-across-the Rockies for perhaps the first time in American history. A tightly knit community arose out of necessity, for these poets depended on the little magazines, small presses, and public readings that they jointly organized. They often were associated with visual artists, not only in the watering spots in which they gathered (New York's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's North Beach), but in the books and magazines they jointly produced to celebrate the conjoined word and image. The Beat Generation The writers most frequently associated with the Beat Generation are Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and Diane DiPrima. The first three met one another around Columbia University in the mid-1940s, and forged relationships that would prove central to their lives. The three shared an apartment for several months and became midwives--as collaborators, agents, typists, and readers--to each other's literary careers. Neither Kerouac nor Burroughs are primarily poets, but their experimentation with language--the revolution of the word--paralleled that of the poets. Ginsberg was the first to become widely known, following his public reading of Howl in 1955, and its obscenity trial in 1957. Kerouac's most famous book, On the Road, was largely written in a three-week marathon in 1951 but was not published until 1957. It became not only a best-seller, but the enduring testament of a generation. That same year, Ginsberg and Kerouac traveled to Tangier to help Bu rroughs type and organize the manuscript that would be published as Naked Lunch a few years later; it, too, was tried for obscenity. The Beats' literary careers crossed over into the arena of popular culture, and now, decades later, these writers are celebrated in advertisements, movies, and songs. Their identity as poets-as-rock-stars sometimes obscures their contribution to American literature. Psychological candor, enshrinement of the commonplace, and the writing

Peter Weir essays

Peter Weir essays Combine an auteurist approach with a generic approach to discuss the films of a particular director in social, cultural, and ideological context. Briefly outline how this auteur uses genre in the films, and critically appraise the ways the auteur uses these generic elements to comment upon American society, culture, and ideology at particular periods in 20th century American history. Peter Weir is an Australia born film director working in the United States and has himself stated: "Frankly, I've never fit in anywhere." This perspective is reflected in Weirs films, in which, as an auteur, he presents the perspective of an individual who is on the outside looking in. His characters are all isolated from society in their own way. Some examples of such characters are: Max, a plane crash survivor who can no longer relate to the people or world around him in Fearless (1993); Allie Fox, an individual dissatisfied with the materialist society in which he lives in The Mosquito Coast (1986); and in a reversed approach, Truman Burbank, who is unaware that he is the world's biggest television star; he is the individual on the inside and everyone else is looking at him, in The Truman Show (1998). There are other more specific psychological and ideological questions raised by Peter Weir's films, as well as general commentary on American society in the twentieth century. Weir shares with his contempories - the Scorseses, Spielbergs, and Lucases - a kind of popular culture that is fundamentally American (Quart, 1991: 112). In Weirs personal point of view, The artistic personality belongs deeply nowhere ... it's the person who goes from court to court and plays before the king but never signs up to any particular group and remains a comment on society. Some of the comments that Weir makes in the films already mentioned are: there is a disparity between what is presented in society as reality&apo...

The Asian Tiger Mosquito Dengue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Asian Tiger Mosquito Dengue - Essay Example Mosquitoes in general are widely known insects which are parasitic and transmit diseases among the human beings. Against this background, this essay seeks to critically review the diseases caused by mosquitoes particularly the denegue fever. The Asian Tiger Mosquitoes are distinctly shiny and they have black scales which have a silver white band down the middle of their back. This is regarded as a medium sized mosquito with about 2 to 3 millimeters in length. It appears as if it is wearing stripped black and white socks on its legs. According to Novak (1992), this type of mosquito is very aggressive during the daytime particularly early in the morning as well late afternoon. Between 10 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, this mosquito is believed to be on its peak period of biting. As implied by the name, this type of mosquito originates from the continent of Asiain various areas such as New Guinea, India, Pakistan, Madagascar, China, Korea and Japan. Other recent studies have also indicated that this kind of mosquito specie is also found in the islands of Hawaii and South Pacific. There have also been studies which indicate that this specie also exists in the states of Delaware, Texas, New Jersey and Maryland. Habitat: The Asian Tiger Mosquitoes are commonly known to favour breeding in natural as well as artificial containers with stagnant water such as tree holes, tires, empty tins, flower pots, bottles and a lot of other disused household cans lying idle and trapping water. Life cycle: According to information obtained from IntroduceSpeciesWHSAPBio (N.D), the egg is the starting point in the life cycle of the Asian Tiger Mosquitoes. It can hatch between a period which is as early as four days to one year depending on the immersion of the eggs. Following the hatching of the eggs, most of the larvae live underwater and they feed on anything that is smaller than 10 microns that is found in the water. It takes 3 days to several