Volume 18 (2016) Issue 5Article 13U Ut topi opia in P a in Pr rog ogr res ess in di P s in di Pr rim ima a' ' s R s Revolut evolution iona ar ry Lett y Lette ers rs Es Est tí íb bali aliz E z Enc nca ar rn na ac ción-P ión-Pinedo inedo University of MurciaFollow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcwebPart of the American Literature Commons, and the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies CommonsDedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. Letters (1971) within the context of social transformation and spatiality studies. In the context of the socio-political revolt and utopian revival of the 1970s, di Prima's utopia is grounded in reality and in progress; and it needs people's help and strength to be attained. In the first section of the article Pinedo analyzes a group of letters which serve as "tips" or a "how-to" guide to prepare for a revolution and in the second part she considers letters in which glimpses of a post-revolutionary utopian society are offered. These two aspects create a space which is both socially-formed and transformed. In this light, di Prima's revolution is read as a heterotopia, as a place of resistance used to move towards utopia.
Though green readings of Beat works are a relatively new phenomenon, the Beat aesthetic easily meets Lawrence Buell’s criteria for ecocritical texts. Indeed, many writers associated with the Beat movement, such as Diane di Prima and Anne Waldman, often use their work to give shape to environmental concerns. This article studies the development of a green poetics in the work of both di Prima and Waldman. Focusing on works spanning four decades including Revolutionary Letters (1971), Loba (1998), Uh Oh Plutonium (1982) or The Iovis Trilogy (2011), to name a few, the article analyzes the poets’ use of utopian and dystopian images through which they develop a poetics of eco-crisis that opposes the conformism and political tension of the American postwar and its aftermath.
The last three decades have witnessed a significant increase in the academic interest in the Beat Generation. No longer seen as “know-nothing bohemians” (Podhoretz 1958), scholars have extended the scope of Beat studies, either by generating renewed interest in canonical authors, by expanding the understanding of what Beat means, or by broadening the aesthetic or theoretical lens through which we read Beat writers and poets. Among these, the transnational perspective on Beat writing has sparked careful re-examinations of Beat authors and their works that seek to recognize, among other things, the impact that transnational cultures and literatures have had on Beat writers. Diane di Prima’s long poem Loba (Di Prima 1998), a feminist epic the poet started writing in the early 1970s, draws on a vast array of transnational texts and influences. Most notoriously, di Prima works with mythological and religious texts to revise and challenge the representation of women throughout history. This paper explores di Prima’s particular use of world narratives in light of a feminist poetics and politics of revision. Through the example of “Eve” and the “Virgin Mary”, two of the many female characters whose textual representation is challenged in Loba, the first part of the paper considers di Prima’s use of gnostic and Christian discourses and their impact on her feminist politics of revision. The second part of the paper situates Loba in the specific context of Second-Wave feminism and the rise of Goddess Movement feminist groups. Drawing from the previous analysis, this part reevaluates di Prima’s collection in light of the essentialist debate that analyzes the texts arising from this tradition as naïve and apolitical.
Pivoting around the contrast between Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957) and Tim Z. Hernandez’s Mañana Means Heaven (2013), this article reopens debates about ethnic appropriation and rhetorical control in the Beat Generation. More specifically, it sets out to investigate whether the textual strategies used in Mañana Means Heaven allow ethnic minorities to escape the discursive control exerted by On the Road. Keeping in mind that Hernandez’s text acts as a counter-discursive text to Kerouac’s representation of Bea Franco (aka “the Mexican girl”) this article analyzes the different dialogues Mañana Means Heaven necessarily establishes with On the Road, which often include alliances as well as points of departure.
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