Description
Book SynopsisMore often associated with hedonism and cheap thrills than with notions of alienation and suffering, Beat literature has rarely been envisaged from the perspective of the paradoxical dynamics at play in the writings. What this book evidences is that the sacrosanct quest for transcendence staged by Kerouac and by Ginsberg is underpinned, primarily, by a trope of nullification that acts as a menace for the self. This tropism for destruction and death is not only emblematic of their works, it is also used as a literary strategy that seeks to conquer the fear of self-annihilation through the writing itself. It is precisely this interplayapproached through an Existentialism that simultaneously converges upon the Transcendentalist legacy of Beat writingwhich probes the paradoxical dimension of the texts, enabling the mythological figure of Thanatos to take centre stage.
The critical synergy of the book, brought about by relating American literature and culture to European thought, e
Trade Review
“The Paradox of Thanatos takes a fresh look at the Beat Generation and its ambiguous aesthetic tenets. Shuttling back and forth between self-destruction and self-liberation, Kerouac and Ginsberg, who are at the center of this new study of 1950s American counterculture, have often been (mis-)understood as prophets of drugs, sex, and the doom of individual creativity. As Harma convincingly argues, however, while revelling in the destruction of the creative self by the stifling forces of mass-consumption and greed, the Beats also managed to forge a more positive vision, and thus carve out a spiritual space that allowed for transcendence and (aesthetic) redemption. Harma’s is a timely study that adds an important new angle on postwar American society and its countercultural critics.” —Klaus Benesch, Full Professor of English and American Studies; LMU, International Research Professor; LMU, The University of Munich
Table of Contents
Foreword – Introduction: The Quest for Thanatos – The Transcendental Ontology of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg – The Mirror on the Road: Kerouac’s Vision of Anguish – The Pith of Existential Nothingness: Ginsberg’s Moloch – Existential and Transcendental Forms of Engagement in Ginsberg’s "Howl" – The Phenomenological Poetics of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg – Kerouac’s Solipsistic Revolt: The Strategy of Disengagement – Conclusion: The Paradox of Thanatos – Index.
