Beat
Literature in Europe offers
twelve in-depth analyses of how European authors and intellectuals on
both sides of the Iron Curtain read, translated and appropriated
American Beat literature. The chapters combine textual analysis with
discussions on the role Beat had in popular music, art, and different
subcultures.
The
book participates in the transnational turn that has gained in
importance during the past years in literary studies, looking at
transatlantic connections through the eyes of European authors,
artists and intellectuals, and showing how Beat became a cluster of
texts, images, and discussions with global scope. At the same time,
it provides vivid examples of how national literary fields in Europe
evolved during the cold war era.
