All semester in WR 150, I had been waiting for the appropriate moment to integrate film into my discussion of modernist poetry as it is an art form I am a great admirer of. Coincidentally, my final paper on the Beat movement proved to be the best suited to the visual medium of film. I was particularly interested in how one technique or theme can be utilized across different mediums, styles, and time periods. Using the organizational device of montage as a jumping-off point for this essay, I explored how Allen Ginsberg’s seminal poem “Howl” represents a multilayered cultural, social, and historical montage made up of various film styles, movements, and themes. As a result, Ginsberg, either consciously or unconsciously, uses montage to create more meaning out of what some may claim to be a rambling or even nonsensical poem, one that breaks quite radically from the more outwardly formal, academic, and elitist poetry that had preceded it. “Howl” not only resembles the cinema verite style that was becoming increasingly popular at the time, but it also captures one of the central tenets of another less mainstream film movement called Underground Film, as well as avant-garde film in general. “Howl” and the Beat Generation and style it represents address many taboo topics, such as race, homosexuality, and drugs just as Underground films of that time did. Both were completely unabashed in their disdain for and protest against formal institutions and in their ultimate call for more human understanding and equality. Underground Film and “Howl’s” exploration of these sensitive and divisive topics served to jolt the reader out of their mundane and cyclical everyday lives in order to prove to them that the only reason they were so shocked was because they had hardly bothered to expose themselves to those issues before.
CLAIRE HOWARD is a rising sophomore in Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences intending to major in Film and Television with a possible minor in Women and Gender Studies. She grew up on the West Coast in Pasadena, CA. She would like to thank all of her classmates for their helpful and insightful feedback throughout the writing process. She would also like to thank Professor Wallace for being so open and willing to let her explore various topics and ideas outside of the immediate course material. He always expressed his passion and enthusiasm for everything he taught, and she is saddened that future students will not be able to experience one of his classes.