Vislumbres estéticos e mergulhos poéticos em On the Road e Howl: uma viagem histórico-literária por Jack Kerouac e Allen Ginsberg

Abstract

The objective of this work is to analyze the aesthetic ideals of two writers of the Beat Generation: Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. With such an objective in mind, their two main works, On the Road and Howl, respectively, were studied comparatively. Through this study, we tried to delineate the interpretation that each author gives to these ideals they share, showing the divergences of understanding and materialization of such ideals in these two works. Besides, there is a historical trajectory. Firstly, building a strong base for the work, we analyze the historical period in America during the moment of formation of the generation. The historical focus then shifts to the private lives of each author, their cultural and linguistic influences, their intellectual itineraries. From that knowledge, it is also possible to understand the process of formation of the ideals themselves, central theme of this dissertation. We also tried to show how the next generations got hold of the ideals studied here, how the readers interpreted those artistic works in an individual way. From that, the authors’ reaction to this reinterpretation is reflected upon. In other words, this work is a deep survey of the aesthetic ideals of two artists, their formation and perpetuation. The main documents and texts used in the development of the analysis described above were: private journals to trace in time the transition of thoughts on their own artistic practices, letters exchanged between the two artists to demonstrate how their thoughts communicated and diverged in certain aspects, articles from newspapers and magazines to show the reception they had at the time and what others thought of the texts we studied, and biographies to base the text with history fundamentals.