Bitniki is ... The appearance, culture and literature of beaters

Sometimes in a conversation between people you can hear a word like "beatnik". Perhaps someone will not understand its meaning. In fact, beatniks is a term that was invented to refer to representatives of a particular culture. This word comes from the name of the bit-generation, a mention of which appeared in the 1940s. For the first time the term was proposed in 1958, it meant a certain social stratum of youth of the XX century, which was characterized by an antisocial behavior and rejection of the traditional cultural values of the people.

How this term appeared

It's no secret that the beat generation (English generation) is translated as a "broken generation". For the first time such a definition was mentioned by Jack Kerouac. He is considered one of the main figures in this direction. According to his theory, this generation of people came to replace the previous one, which he called "disappeared". You might think that the term "beatnik" was coined by Kerouac, but this is not entirely true. This word appeared a little later, in 1958. It is interesting that in the formation of this word from the Russian language the suffix "-nik" was borrowed. The first part of the word, that is beat, in the slang of jazz musicians of that time, "poverty" and "desperation" mattered. However, Jack Kerouac himself never recognized this term and considered it not very suitable.

The meaning of the word "beatnik"

If you follow the original definition of the term, beatniks are young people with a beard, wearing sandals, they can often be seen staggering around the city, sitting in coffee shops. Basically, they were characterized as parasites and fans of jazz music. This term often had a negative coloring, had a slightly offensive value and in a sense was considered a mockery. Thus, it can be said that beatniki is a subculture that appeared in the middle of the 20th century and has become widespread.

According to other sources, the term had no exact meaning and originally served to refer to many people who in some way were associated with the artistic environment of New York. After a while, by the end of the 1950s, this term was used to refer to young people who did not have a particular interest in the American dream - that is, a successful career, home, car and other material subjects.

Typical appearance of the beatnik

As already mentioned above, beatniks are rather a way of life, and not even a style. This way of life meant a kind of clothing. Most beatnikov dressed very bizarrely, they were immediately noticeable in a large mass of people. Often, the appearance of representatives of this direction was confused with students of art academies who were also fans of jazz music.

The main item of clothing beatnik was a black sweater with a high neck or a black turtleneck. Berets were also popular, sometimes beatniks wore white T-shirts, always without drawings and inscriptions. Often representatives of this direction carried with them 2 drums (bongos). Sunglasses are another attribute of the bit direction, they should have been impenetrable. There was no specific hairstyle, mostly they wore long hair up to the shoulders, most often straight. The most popular shoes among beaters are black leather boots in various variations.

If we talk about women's clothing, the girls mostly went in black pantyhose, tights and sweaters. Also popular were Capri and long skirts, again black.

The most famous representatives of this direction

Of course, there were a lot of representatives of this direction. However, certain personalities are considered basic. It should be noted that beatnik poetry occupies one of the central places in their culture. Therefore it is not surprising that the people who stood at the sources of the bit direction were mainly writers and poets. So, these are 3 people: Lucien Carr, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. After a while this list was replenished with one more name - William Burroughs. It may seem that he does not play such an important role, but his importance in the formation of bit-culture is great. As you know, beatniki - it's not just clothing or appearance, it's a lifestyle and direction of thought, your culture and poetry. We understand further.

"Anthology of beatnik poetry": what is it

Over the long period of its existence, the culture of the Baltics has produced many literary works, both in prose and in verse. On the theme of this way of life, wrote a lot of representatives of the bit-direction. Therefore, in 2004, a book was published that became the first collection of beatnik poetry, as well as some theoretical materials on the beat-direction. "Anthology beatnikov" is considered the largest edition, which went for the entire time this style of life exists in Russian. It is interesting that many of the poems printed in this book were translated into Russian for the first time.

The book also contains some biographical essays on famous writers-beatnikov. Reading this huge collection of unique materials, you can truly immerse yourself in the culture of beats and understand what thoughts and ideas were relevant to them, as well as imbued with the meaning of the direction.