Beat Myths in Literature

Estíbaliz Encarnación-Pinedo holds a PhD in postwar American literature from the University of Murcia (Spain) and is currently a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Modern Languages at Polytechnic University of Cartagena, Murcia. Her research focuses on gender and feminism in postwar and avant-garde American poetry. She is co-editor of ruth weiss: Beat Poetry, Jazz, Art (2021), and has published journal articles and book chapters on Beat women and Beat-related poets such as Anne Waldman, ruth weiss, Harold Norse, Diane di Prima, or Joanne Kyger.

"In Beat Myths in Literature, Estíbaliz Encarnación-Pinedo "looks back" in two important senses: she looks back at ancient myths through the optic of women poets who rewrite these stories in contemporary, gendered terms. In like manner she looks back at the positioning of women in ancient myth alongside contemporary myths that continue to define women’s position in society. In her remarkable readings of long poems by Anne Waldman, Joanne Kyger, Diane di Prima and personal memoirs by Hettie Jones, Joyce Johnson, and others, Encarnación-Pinedo enlarges our view of writers loosely associated with the "Beat generation" label. By contesting treatments of myth within a masculinist mythopoetics and revising the role of women writers in a largely male enclave she looks back by looking forward". --Michael Davidson, author of The San Francisco Renaissance: Poetics and Community at Mid-century and Guys Like Us: Citing Masculinity in Cold War Poetics"Anyone seeking a cogent introduction to the significance of women Beat writers should turn to Beat Myths in Literature: Revisionist Strategies in Beat Women. It proves a useful starting point and an expansion of extant scholarship through exploration of writers including Diane di Prima, Joanne Kyger, Joyce Johnson, Hettie Jones, and Anne Waldman. With cat-like nimbleness, Encarnacioìn-Pinedo elucidates their production of established Beat aesthetics while deftly arguing for the experimental techniques—via□poetry, memoir, film, and archival work—by which the women looked backward into myth to create plausible visions of their then-contemporary realities alongside a more equitable future". --Nancy M. Grace, author of Jack Kerouac and the Literary Imagination and co-editor of Girls who Wore Black: Women Writing the Beat Generation"In this masterful work, Estíbaliz Encarnación-Pinedo provides a compelling account of how Beat women writers skillfully deployed myths, both ancient and contemporary, to refashion their lives and poetics, offering nothing less than a re-evaluation of the myth of the Beat Generation itself in the process. Linking insightful close readings with a range of critical approaches, Encarnación-Pinedo has produced an eminently readable account of a body of texts that deserve more attention. An indispensable book not only for those interested in Beat writing, but for anyone concerned with how mythology continues to create meaning in the present". --Erik Mortenson, author of Capturing the Beat Moment: Cultural Politics and the Poetics of Presence and Translating the Counterculture: The Reception of the Beats in Turkey"Beat Myths in Literature: Revisionist Strategies in Beat Women is a fascinating survey of the ways authors including Joanne Kyger, Diane di Prima and Anne Waldman employ mythic narratives to illuminate their own lives as artists and at the same time reimagine a male-centered literary history from the silenced woman's point of view. Filled with insights concerning the intersections of ancient and modern myths and literature, this book marks an important advance in the field of Beat Studies and will remain an important source for both scholars in the field and the general reader." --David Stephen Calonne, author of Diane di Prima: Visionary Poetics and the Hidden Religions, and The Beats in Mexico

• Chapter 1: The Art of Looking BackMyth and the Beat GenerationWhen Women Look Back: Political and Aesthetic ConsiderationsChapter 2: Joanne Kyger and the Subversion of DiscourseReevaluation of Female Passivity: Genre Considerations Uses of Myth and the Mythologizing of the SelfPoet as EditorChapter 3: Diane di Prima’s Feral Epic Revisionism Constructing Loba: Some ImagesGoddess in a Patriarchal World Revision and Appropriation: The Mythic and Mystic DiscoursesChapter 4: Anne Waldman and the Scope of JoveThe Gender/Genre Debate: Epic and Female Experience Dismantling Jove: Poet as ArchivistMyth and the Androgynous Position Chapter 5: Memoir and the Beat ChickBeat Chick and the Female Body The Reversal and Perpetuation of Gender Roles: Independence and MarriageBeatnik Motherhood: Myths and Realities Chapter 6: Memoir and Writing (the) BeatWhy memoir? Some Genre ConsiderationsWriting (in) the MemoirsBeat Generation Revisited: Stylistic ConsiderationsCoda: Expansive Revisionism