The Beats in Mexico by David Stephen Calonne (A Book Review)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31261/rias.17572

Keywords:

Beat Generation, Mexico in Literature, book review, David Steven Calonne

Abstract

The Beats in Mexico (2022) by David Stephen Calonne is reviewed here in terms of its contribution to the larger body of academic studies that explore the representation of Mexico in US literature. Calonne's study distinguishes itself by emphasizing the importance of overlooked female writers among the Beat generation, including Bonnie Bremser, Joanne Kyger, and Margaret Randall, who appear alongside more familiar names such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. In doing so, Calonne expands the discussion of the Beats in important ways and, furthermore, offers a welcome contribution that enriches the conversation around the understanding (and misunderstanding) of Mexico by US writers and intellectuals. Given the continued tensions between the two countries, it should be of great topical interest as well.

Author Biography

Nathaniel R. Racine, Texas A&M International University

Nathaniel R. Racine is an assistant professor of English in the Department of Humanities at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. He holds a PhD in English from Temple University in Philadelphia and a professionally-accredited Master’s degree in Urban Planning from McGill University in Montréal, Canada. In 2018-2019 he was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar to Mexico. His recent work draws from the fields of geography and urbanism to understand the cultural exchange between the US and Mexico from the interwar period through midcentury.

References

Calonne, David Stephen. The Beats in Mexico. Rutgers UP, 2022.

- - -. The Spiritual Imagination of the Beats. Cambridge UP, 2017

Delpar, Helen. The Enormous Vogue of Things Mexican: Cultural Relations between the United States and Mexico, 1920-1935. U of Alabama P, 1992.

Gunn, Drewey Wayne. American and British Writers in Mexico, 1556-1973. U of Texas P, 1974.

Noakes, Susan. “The Rhetoric of Travel: The French Romantic Myth of Naples.” Ethnohistory 33.2 (1986): 139-148. https://doi.org/10.2307/481770

Porter, Katherine Anne. Outline of Mexican Arts and Crafts. Young & McCallister, 1922.

Robinson, Cecil. Mexico and the Hispanic Southwest in American Literature. U of Arizona P, 1977.

Sheldon, Glenn. South of Our Selves: Mexico in the Poems of Williams, Kerouac, Corso, Ginsberg, Levertov and Hayden. McFarland, 2004.

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Published

2024-06-03

How to Cite

Racine, N. R. (2024). The Beats in Mexico by David Stephen Calonne (A Book Review). Review of International American Studies, 17(1), 157–162. https://doi.org/10.31261/rias.17572

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2024): Journeying America(n)s: On Paradoxes of Travel (and) Narratives

Section

REVIEWS

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