Abstract
In this article, I explore Paul Goodman’s ambivalent relationship with Allen Ginsberg as a fellow elder statesman of the sixties, and argue that his conflicted attitude towards the Beats is reflective of broader tensions within the radical cultures of the period. Finally, I also suggest that by exploring points in common between Goodman and the Beats, we can gain a better understanding of the links between 1960s counterculture and its precursor and successor movements, from Romanticism to Green politics.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Luke Walker is an interdisciplinary scholar whose main research interests revolve around the links between Romanticism and subsequent countercultures. His PhD, ‘William Blake in the 1960s: Counterculture and Radical Reception’, was completed at the University of Sussex in 2015, and he has published several articles on the influence of Blake and Wordsworth on the poetry of Allen Ginsberg. Further articles are forthcoming shortly on the impact of the American Beats on British poetry, and on the three-way relationship between Blake, the Beats and Bob Dylan. Luke’s other research interests include the influence of Gnosticism on the Beats, the relationship between Romanticism and Buddhism, and the influence of William Blake on contemporary children’s literature.