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Chapter 23 - Queer Sexuality

La Grande Permission

from Part IV - Major Themes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2026

Erik Mortenson
Affiliation:
Lake Michigan College
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Summary

This chapter explores the importance of Ginsberg’s sexuality in the context of his life and work. Aware of his nonnormative sexual desires from an early age, Ginsberg’s lifelong quest for self-understanding was necessarily shaped and informed by poetic explorations into his sexuality, his relationship with which was sometimes fraught. His work bears the imprint of his enduring preoccupation with the variable experiences of queer minds and bodies (often his own) in both straight and queer spaces. The chapter examines selected canonical poems including “A Supermarket in California,” “My Sad Self,” “Howl,” “City Midnight Junk Strains,” and “The Green Automobile,” in order to highlight their generative provocations in the context of a period of prevailing queer invisibility and to emphasize Ginsberg’s legacy as a queer poet in the twenty-first century. The chapter also examines the relationship between Ginsberg’s status as a queer pioneer and some of the more troubling aspects of his in some areas limited and limiting visions and modes of sexuality.

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  • Queer Sexuality
  • Edited by Erik Mortenson, Lake Michigan College
  • Book: Allen Ginsberg in Context
  • Online publication: 27 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009525572.028
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  • Queer Sexuality
  • Edited by Erik Mortenson, Lake Michigan College
  • Book: Allen Ginsberg in Context
  • Online publication: 27 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009525572.028
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Queer Sexuality
  • Edited by Erik Mortenson, Lake Michigan College
  • Book: Allen Ginsberg in Context
  • Online publication: 27 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009525572.028
Available formats
×