Date of Award
8-2013
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College/School
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department/Program
English
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Art Simon
Committee Member
Alex Lykidis
Committee Member
Janet Cutler
Abstract
My master’s thesis lies in examining the appropriation of Henry David Thoreau’s techniques of authorship within the American 1960’s counterculture. My investigation focuses on how Stan Brakhage, Bob Dylan, and Allen Ginsberg engage in Thoreauvian forms of selfhood, self-government, citizenship, and ecological awareness within the context of the 1960’s counterculture. These three artists take on issues of 20th century materialism, nationalism, sexuality, and racial equality, within their respective medium of expression, as participants in what I will define as “Thoreauvian tradition”. Elements of this “Thoreauvian tradition” include subjective vision, ontological identity, undermining myth, and evolving the medium. These are the sub textual components through which Thoreau’s writings become more blatantly associated to passive resistance, political and educational demonstration, and oral and written social reform.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Galione, James Anthony, "Redefinitions of Selfhood: Stan Brakhage, Bob Dylan, and Allen Ginsberg as Thoreauvian Counterculturists" (2013). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 850.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/850