Hip Sublime
Subtitle: Beat Writers and the Classical Tradition
Contributors: Rosen, Ralph; Murnaghan, Sheila; Rosen, Ralph
Publisher: The Ohio State University Press
Published: 20171101
Place of publication: Columbus, OH
Subjects: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers
Description: In their continual attempt to transcend what they perceived as the superficiality, commercialism, and precariousness of life in post-World War II America, the Beat writers turned to the classical authors who provided, on the one hand, a discourse of sublimity to help them articulate their desire for a purity of experience, and, on the other, a venerable literary heritage.

This volume examines for the first time the intersections between the Beat writers and the Greco-Roman literary tradition.  Many of the “Beats” were university-trained and highly conscious of their literary forebears, frequently incorporating their knowledge of Classical literature into their own avant-garde, experimental practice.  The interactions between writers who fashioned themselves as new and iconoclastic, and a venerable literary tradition often seen as conservative and culturally hegemonic, produced fascinating tensions and paradoxes, which are explored here by a diverse group of contributors.
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