Abstract

My Paper entitled ‘From Manhatten to Manikarnika’ traces down the history of Allen Ginsberg’s stay in India. It aims to draw parallels between the Beat writers of the apocalyptic 60’s in America and the revered ‘Aghori’ sadhus in India. For an average American in the 60’s, the East, especially India was a queer nation, it was this queerness that fascinated the Beats writers of the 1960's in America. The reverence and reception of nudity, the celebration of the body, the adoration of death, the consumption of hallucinatory drugs for spiritual connection; approval of everything bizarre and gory lured the west to turn to the ‘heathen’ east for spiritual liberation from its constrained, materialistic society. The ‘aghoris’ managed to impress the Beat writers of the west to such an extent that Ginsberg ended up himself being a ‘yogi’ after his visit to India. Apart from Hinduism in general the one aspect that I wish to talk about and study in detail is the influence of the aghor philosophy on the mindset of Allen Ginsberg.

Highlights

  • There has been a tendency to portray the Beat movement in a very narrow sense by referring to it as a mere cultural and literary ‘impulse’ and to see this impulse in a negative shade and regard the movement as a mere revolt rather than a protest for something

  • Unlike Kaddish where Ginsberg mourns the death of his mother, in Father Death Blues, we find him as a spiritual guru who has reconciled with death

  • There is a considerable amount of in-depth study that could be done on these few parallels between the Beats and the Aghoris

Read more

Summary

Introduction

There has been a tendency to portray the Beat movement in a very narrow sense by referring to it as a mere cultural and literary ‘impulse’ and to see this impulse in a negative shade and regard the movement as a mere revolt rather than a protest for something. “For the crucifix I speak out, for the Star of Israel I speak out, for the most divine man who ever lived who was German (Bach) I speak out, for sweet Mohammed I speak out, for Buddha, I speak out, for Lao-tse and Chuang-Tse I speak out.” (Steven Watson, 42)To those who called Howl “howl against civilization,” Ginsberg replied that his ejaculatory work was a protest in the original sense of “pro-attestation, that is testimony in favor of Value.”. He illustrated his protest in religious terms. This paper is an attempt to study the various influences that India had over Allen Ginsberg

Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.