P/LI/16. Beatniks as a literary trend of 1950s

The paper investigates the concept 'beat' in relation to the literary trend known as 'beat generation writers', or 'beatniks'. Coming from circus and carnival slang, 'beat' acquired the sense of 'being trodden on' combined with the 'beat' of the music to which a lot of the poetry in the fifties was read. The beatniks are described as the counter culture that wanted to find spirituality in an age of hate and violence between the Second World War and the Cold War. Drop outs and hallucinogenic drugs users with interests in Zen Buddhism and bohemian world life style, they are seen as rebels against a consumerist America. The literary analysis of the works by Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg is presented.