| Countering the Counterculture Subjects: Dissenters in literature.; Libertarianism in literature.; Social problems in literature.; Mexican Americans in literature.; Mexican Americans; Counterculture; Literature and society; American literature; Beat generation.; American literature; Rebelling against bourgeois vacuity and taking their countercultural critique on the road, the Beat writers and artists have long symbolized a spirit of freedom and radical democracy. Manuel Martinez offers an eye-opening challenge to this characterization of the Beats, juxtaposing them against Chicano nationalists like Raul Salinas, Jose Montoya, Luis Valdez, and Oscar Acosta and Mexican migrant writers in the United States, like Tomas Rivera and Ernesto Galarza. Manuel L. Martinez is assistant professor in the Department of English at Indiana University. His novel Crossing was chosen as one 1998's Best Books by Writers of Color by the PEN American Center. His most recent novel is called Drift . |