LITR 217 The Beat Generation in Literature This course will place the Beat writers firmly within the context of their times and trace the cultural and historical currents which shaped this body of poetry, literature, art and film. Students will explore how these writers broke with the cultural past of America and the West while also building continuities with that past. Authors studied might include Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Diane Di Prima and Allen Ginsberg, among others.