| Translating the Counterculture: The Reception of the Beats in Turkey Contributor(s): Mortenson, Erik (Author) |
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ISBN: 0809336545 ISBN-13: 9780809336548 Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press OUR PRICE: $44.55 Product Type: Paperback Published: April 2018 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - General - Language Arts & Disciplines | Translating & Interpreting |
| Dewey: 810.900 |
| LCCN: 2017031354 |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6.1" W x 9.2" (1.10 lbs) 278 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In Turkey the Beat message of dissent is being given renewed life as publishers, editors, critics, readers, and others dissatisfied with the conservative social and political trends in the country have turned to the Beats and other countercultural forebears for alternatives. Through an examination of a broad range of literary translations, media portrayals, interviews, and other related materials, this book seeks to uncover how the Beats and their texts are being circulated, discussed, and used in Turkey to rethink the possibilities they might hold for social critique today. Mortenson examines how in Turkey the Beats have been framed by the label "underground literature"; explores the ways they are repurposed in the counterculture-inspired journal Underground Poetix; looks at the reception of Jack Kerouac's On the Road and how that reaction provides a better understanding of the construction of "American-ness"; delves into the recent obscenity trial of William S. Burroughs's novel The Soft Machine and the attention the book's supporters brought to government repression and Turkish homophobia; and analyzes the various translations of Allen Ginsberg's Howl to demonstrate the relevance Ginsberg still holds for social rebellion today. Translating the Counterculture takes a revolutionary look at how contemporary readers in other parts of the world respond to the Beats. Challenging and unsettling an American-centric understanding of the Beats, Mortenson pushes the discipline toward a fuller consideration of their cultural legacy in a globalized twenty-first century. |
Contributor Bio(s): Mortenson, Erik: - Erik Mortenson spent ten years as an assistant professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Koc University in Istanbul, and is now a senior lecturer at Wayne State University's Honors College in Detroit. He is the author of Ambiguous Borderlands: Shadow Imagery in Cold War American Culture (2016) and Capturing the Beat Moment: Cultural Politics and the Poetics of Presence, which was selected as a Choice outstanding academic title in 2011. |