Publishing Journal ›› 2025, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (4): 106-113.

Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Cross-Media Narrative of Allen Ginsberg’s Photobooks : Paradigm, Process,and Significance

  

  1. Department of Foreign Languages, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Country and Area Studies Academy, Beijing Foreign Studies University
  • Received:2025-02-18 Revised:2025-05-21 Online:2025-07-29 Published:2025-07-29

Abstract:

This study analyzes the rhetorical strategies employed in Allen Ginsberg’ s photobook, focusing on the interplay between text and image. It reveals that Ginsberg embeds poetic imagination within the symbolic gaps between handwritten text and photographs, creating a cross-media narrative paradigm of “snapshot poetics.” This process manifests both in the historical dimension, where isolated images are transformed into temporal archives and in the body writing dimension, which reconstructs the embodied presence and group interactions of the “Beat Generation” artists. Based on this, the study explores the cross-media narrative significance of Ginsberg’ s photobook in constructing the cultural image of the “Beat Generation” poets. It highlights the breaking of the limitations inherent in single-media narratives and how establishing a framework for perceiving sacred moments facilitates a layered transition in cultural writing. Ultimately, on an individual level, the study activates the reader’ s awareness of the artist’ s existential state ; on a collective level, it decodes the cultural identity of anti-traditional artists ; and on a macro level, it reconstructs the socio-cultural coordinates of the “Beat Generation” literary movement.

Key words:

CLC Number: