Educated in France and in the United Kingdom, Tanguy Harma received his PhD in English in 2018 from Goldsmiths, University of London. His international experience in higher education (University of Minnesota, Goldsmiths, University of Southampton) brought him this year to Istanbul Kültür University, where currently teaches in the Department of English Language and Literature and continues his exploration of the writings of the American counterculture.

“This re-evaluation of Kerouac and Ginsberg includes their dialogical and intertextual inscription in a vast and influential lineage formed by authors such as Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau, allowing for a critical revision of the place of these authors of the Beat Generation in the History of American and World Literature. However, this suggestive essay goes further: it shows the dynamic relationship between Myth and History. The attention given to several mythological figures (Thanatos, Sisyphus, Dionysus, Moloch, and others) allows us to discover an important mythical subtext that deepens the epidermal and ideological meaning of Kerouac’s and Ginsberg’s writings, highlighting the continual tension between conflicting forces that fight each other (solar and apollonian structures vs/ nocturnal, transgressive and Dionysian imaginary).”—Carlos F. Clamote Carreto, Professor of French Literature, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

• Foreword – Introduction: The Quest for Thanatos – The Transcendental Ontology of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg – The Mirror on the Road: Kerouac’s Vision of Anguish – The Pith of Existential Nothingness: Ginsberg’s Moloch – Existential and Transcendental Forms of Engagement in Ginsberg’s "Howl" – The Phenomenological Poetics of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg – Kerouac’s Solipsistic Revolt: The Strategy of Disengagement – Conclusion: The Paradox of Thanatos – Index.

Educated in France and in the United Kingdom, Tanguy Harma received his PhD in English in 2018 from Goldsmiths, University of London. His international experience in higher education (University of Minnesota, Goldsmiths, University of Southampton) brought him this year to Istanbul Kültür University, where currently teaches in the Department of English Language and Literature and continues his exploration of the writings of the American counterculture.

“This re-evaluation of Kerouac and Ginsberg includes their dialogical and intertextual inscription in a vast and influential lineage formed by authors such as Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau, allowing for a critical revision of the place of these authors of the Beat Generation in the History of American and World Literature. However, this suggestive essay goes further: it shows the dynamic relationship between Myth and History. The attention given to several mythological figures (Thanatos, Sisyphus, Dionysus, Moloch, and others) allows us to discover an important mythical subtext that deepens the epidermal and ideological meaning of Kerouac’s and Ginsberg’s writings, highlighting the continual tension between conflicting forces that fight each other (solar and apollonian structures vs/ nocturnal, transgressive and Dionysian imaginary).”—Carlos F. Clamote Carreto, Professor of French Literature, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

• Foreword – Introduction: The Quest for Thanatos – The Transcendental Ontology of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg – The Mirror on the Road: Kerouac’s Vision of Anguish – The Pith of Existential Nothingness: Ginsberg’s Moloch – Existential and Transcendental Forms of Engagement in Ginsberg’s "Howl" – The Phenomenological Poetics of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg – Kerouac’s Solipsistic Revolt: The Strategy of Disengagement – Conclusion: The Paradox of Thanatos – Index.

Educated in France and in the United Kingdom, Tanguy Harma received his PhD in English in 2018 from Goldsmiths, University of London. His international experience in higher education (University of Minnesota, Goldsmiths, University of Southampton) brought him this year to Istanbul Kültür University, where currently teaches in the Department of English Language and Literature and continues his exploration of the writings of the American counterculture.

“This re-evaluation of Kerouac and Ginsberg includes their dialogical and intertextual inscription in a vast and influential lineage formed by authors such as Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau, allowing for a critical revision of the place of these authors of the Beat Generation in the History of American and World Literature. However, this suggestive essay goes further: it shows the dynamic relationship between Myth and History. The attention given to several mythological figures (Thanatos, Sisyphus, Dionysus, Moloch, and others) allows us to discover an important mythical subtext that deepens the epidermal and ideological meaning of Kerouac’s and Ginsberg’s writings, highlighting the continual tension between conflicting forces that fight each other (solar and apollonian structures vs/ nocturnal, transgressive and Dionysian imaginary).”—Carlos F. Clamote Carreto, Professor of French Literature, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

• Foreword – Introduction: The Quest for Thanatos – The Transcendental Ontology of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg – The Mirror on the Road: Kerouac’s Vision of Anguish – The Pith of Existential Nothingness: Ginsberg’s Moloch – Existential and Transcendental Forms of Engagement in Ginsberg’s "Howl" – The Phenomenological Poetics of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg – Kerouac’s Solipsistic Revolt: The Strategy of Disengagement – Conclusion: The Paradox of Thanatos – Index.