Beat Generation

Beat Generation

n.

A group of American writers and artists popular in the 1950s and early 1960s, influenced by Eastern philosophy and religion and known especially for their use of nontraditional forms and their rejection of conventional social values.

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[From beat, weary; see beat or short for beatitude.]

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Beat Generation

n (functioning as singular or plural)

1. (Sociology) members of the generation that came to maturity in the 1950s, whose rejection of the social and political systems of the West was expressed through contempt for regular work, possessions, traditional dress, etc., and espousal of anarchism, communal living, drugs, etc

2. (Literary & Literary Critical Movements) a group of US writers, notably Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs, who emerged in the 1950s

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

beat generation - a United States youth subculture of the 1950s; rejected possessions or regular work or traditional dress; for communal living and psychedelic drugs and anarchism; favored modern forms of jazz (e.g., bebop) beatniks, beats youth subculture - a minority youth culture whose distinctiveness depended largely on the social class and ethnic background of its members; often characterized by its adoption of a particular music genre beatnik, beat - a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior