앨런 긴즈버그의 반문화적 시학과 정치성

Abstract

This dissertation aims to study Allen Ginsberg’s poetry related to the US political affairs. Ginsberg criticizes political actions of the US government through his poetry. His countercultural stance against US government’s policies and his personal experiences are combined to make him criticize the US politics more straightforwardly. To Ginsberg, writing poems is a way of revealing and responding to unrightful political actions of the US government. In this study, I will focus on how he points out the wrongdoings of the US government in various areas such as domestic policies, drugs and international affairs. His poems on American domestic politics are analyzed in chapter Ⅱ. In the whole life of Ginsberg, America’s oppressive mood troubled him. McCarthyism was one of the major topics of his confessional poetry. Controversy over “Howl” made him think about America’s oppressive social mood once again. Politicians tried to control the American society for their benefit consistently. They also waged another war against counterculture, which made Ginsberg worry about America’s future. He pointed out the blunder of government policy and expressed his wish for democracy for American people through his poetry to his final day. In chapter Ⅲ, his poems on drugs are analyzed. Ginsberg used drugs to write poems, but he thought the US Government made many victims of drugs to achieve its political goal. He also thought the US policies on drugs were wrong and the government even planned to set him up with drugs. So, Ginsberg determined to gather information to fight against the government. In that process, he came to learn about immoral acts of the US government. In this chapter, Ginsberg's opinion on the drug and the US policy on it are discussed. In chapter Ⅳ, his poems on international affairs are explored. Ginsberg experienced international political atmosphere during his overseas travel. Especially, he felt the oppressiveness of communist regime very deeply in Cuba and Czechoslovakia. The experiences led Ginsberg to pay much attention to oppressive policies of the US government during the cold war period. He wrote poems on international political affairs related to the US government and also joined the rally against US war policies. In this chapter, I will focus on how Ginsberg dealt with these affairs in his poems. Because the US government’s wrong policy continued, Ginsberg never stopped criticizing it. He mentioned about irrational politics of the US whenever he felt it was needed. The countercultural poetics and politics of Allen Ginsberg are based on such intention.