Lenore Kandel’s The Love Book: Psychedelic Poetics, Cosmic Erotica, and Sexual Politics in the Mid-sixties Counterculture
Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks January 1, 2004 Ronna C. Johnson 2 citations
The Beat and San Francisco Renaissance literary movements are typically remembered as male-dominated, with figures like Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Michael McClure at the forefront, especially after the 1955 Six Gallery reading and the obscenity trial over Ginsberg's Howl. However, women writers were also radical exponents of these movements, challenging censorship and advancing cultural reforms. Their work departed from conventional female passivity and explored sexual equality and subjectivity, establishing proto-feminist dimensions within Beat literature. This reframes the narrative to include women's contributions to the avant-garde and sexual politics of the era.