1 teenage culture and the beatniks

Question 1

‘beat generation’

what were their values?

Answer 1

• rejection of materlailism
• spontaneity, drugs, free love
• defiance of authority

Question 2

‘beat generation’

first members of the beatniks?

Answer 2

Allen Ginsberg
Jack Kerouac

Question 3

‘beat generation’

what religion/political views did they follow

Answer 3

communists, anti-government, asian religions, not christian

Question 4

‘beat generation’

Ginsberg ‘howl’

Answer 4

he read the poem out loud in public which was written under the influence of drugs.
he was arrested and the poems were seized, but his trial made the ‘beats’ generation famous.

Question 5

‘beat generation’

Kerouacs book

Answer 5

‘on the road’ 1957 - book on his travels, he wrote it while under the influence of marijuana. Most of the drug use/ homosexual practices.

Question 6

‘beat generation’

new york times review of ‘on the road’

Answer 6

‘most important utterance yet made by the ‘beat’ generation’

Question 7

‘beat generation’

why did the beats rise?

Answer 7

• independence
• financial freedom
• cars and fast food
• media demonised and alienated teenagers
• comic books supposedly helped corrupt the young through sexual depictions
• growing disrespect for teachers

Question 8

influence of the beatniks…

influence of the beatniks

Answer 8

Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac very influential.
- became fashionable to have an anti-establishment attitude
- bob dylan, tom hayden, and timothy leary gained fame for oppositional stance.

Question 9

juvenile delinquency

what did the beatniks do to promote juvenile delinquency?

Answer 9

• beatup motirists
• stole cars and money
• fought eachother
• even murdered

girls were ‘auxiliaries’ carrying the boys weapons, beating up other girls and motorists.

Question 10

juvenile delinquency

why?

Answer 10

• comic books were violent
• working mothers ignrored child rearing duties
• ‘belonging’
• peer pressure

Question 11

elvis 1935-1977

backstory

Answer 11

• father spent 2 1/2 years in jail for forging a cheque - may have encouraged his negative view of the middle class
• movements considered ‘obscene’ and sexual, disgusting
• music was revolutionary, but didnt focus on major issues.

Question 12

elvis 1935-1977

what were the opinions of elvis?

Answer 12

• black culture ‘contaminating’ british culture
• he was controversially critical of middle class behaviour
• beatniks liked him because they liked rock n’ roll, and he gave them group identity.