Sexuality and Spirituality in Some Works of Christopher Isherwood and Allen Ginsberg

Abstract

This study will discuss the topics of sexuality and spirituality in some literary works by novelist Christopher Isherwood and poet Allen Ginsberg. The aim of this thesis is to compare the position and the approach of both authors on these questions. The generational gap between Isherwood and Ginsberg illustrates the evolution at play in the literary world. Christopher Isherwood represents in many ways a prolongation of British Modernism, while Ginsberg was a prominent member of the emerging movement of the Beats. Even though these aesthetic trends appear remote from one another, both writers co-existed on the American literary scene more or less at the same time and treated similar topics, notably that of homosexual sex and of spirituality. This thesis will try to show that there is a commonality of intentions between Isherwood and Ginsberg, despite the use of very different literary means.