Postmodern Supernaturalism: Ginsberg and the Search for a Supernatural Language

This essay traces the development of Allen Ginsberg's poetics in the sixties, in particular, his use of Hindu and Buddhist chant as a theoretical basis for his writing. Tracing this development reveals how Ginsberg synthesizes an anti-representational theory of writing borrowed from William Burroughs with a conception of the poet as supernaturally empowered. This synthesis in Ginsberg's work is set next to popular religious movements of the sixties that, like Ginsberg's poetry, turned to meaningless or empty language as a privileged site of supernatural power.