Date of Award
Fall 2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Joseph Cermatori
Abstract
This capstone seeks to shed light on the spiritual nature of the Beat Generation's philosophy, using Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as a primary text. By first comparing Beat spirituality to the transcendental poetry of Whitman and then comparing their belief to Kierkegaard's idea of Faith, I demonstrate that Beat spirituality is a reaction to and protest against the ethics of secular, American Modernity.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Freeland, Felix, ""Wake up in Moloch:" Modernity, "Howl," and the Beats' Spiritual Quest" (2020). English Honors Theses. 57.
https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/eng_stu_schol/57