“Kowalska sees these ‘counter-sites’ as versions, however imperfect, of a utopian ideal in which heterogeneity is valued. “They are by nature non-hegemonic, and in the modern context are often the spaces of subculture or deviance; in literature, they are often the setting if not the subject of transgressive fiction. In the work of the Beat Generation writers, scenes such as nocturnal Times Square, the transient lives of migrant worker communities, port and border cities, or downtown rooming houses, can be understood as heterotopias in terms of their liminality, their difference from conformist society, and the sometimes idealised potential for freedom, expression, and experience they are portrayed as holding.”
#BeatGeneration #BeatLiterature #book #border #BritishIrishLiteraryCriticism #BritishIrishLiteratureFiction #byNature #canBeUnderstoodAs #ChrisKelso #cities #communities #conformistSociety #counterSites #deviance #differenceFrom #downtown #experience #Expression #Freedom #HalDuncan #heterogeneity #heterotopias #holding #howeverImperfect #idealisedPotential #inLiterature #inTermsOf #KowalskaS #liminality #migrantWorker #modernContext #nocturnal #nonHegemonic #often #port #portrayed #quote #roomingHouses #scenes #scotland #spaces #subculture #theSetting #theSubject #theWork #TimesSquare #transgressiveFiction #transientLives #utopianIdeal #valued #versions #WilliamSBurroughs19141997 #writers
