Book Launch Speaking the Unspeakable. Allen Ginsberg’s Paradigm of Prophetic Poetry

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), one of the most important and widely read American poets of the 20th century, depicted himself as the prophet of a new America. Scholars and critics have echoed this self-description and turned prophecy into a key theme of his life, but their understanding of this notion often remains vague and ill-defined. Speaking the Unspeakable by Dr. Jonas Faust constructs a flexible definition of prophecy from the poet’s own perspective and applies it to his entire work chronologically to capture its developments, idiosyncrasies and tensions. The book launch is organized by the Heidelberg Center for American Studies of Heidelberg University.