White Negro: Superficial Reflections on a Hipster ( English The White Negro The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster ) - essay by Norman Mailer , which is considered to be the fundamental manifesto of Hipsterism . The essay was published in the summer of 1957 in the journal and caused a wide public response.
| White ebony: superficial reflections on hipsters | |
|---|---|
| The White Negro The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster | |
| Genre | essay |
| Author | Norman Mailer |
| Original language | English |
| Date of first publication | |
Contents
The essay consists of six sections, in which the author describes his view on the nature of the social phenomenon of “hipsterism” , characteristic of America of the 1920-1950s. The author refers to hipsters young people who, because of the rejection of conformist culture, copy the behavioral pattern inherent in the African American population of the United States . It is not only about love for jazz and swing , but for deliberately untidy appearance or manner of speech. Imitating a person from an unsafe “black” area, the hipster lives as if every moment of his life carries a certain threat. For this reason, he refuses to spend precious time on intellectual work and, therefore, does not seek the pleasure of self-development , pursuing exclusively sensual experience and instant gratification of his basic desires. [one]
“To catch a wave means to communicate, transfer your essential rhythms to a friend, a lover, just people around you, and, just as importantly, feel the response vibrations. To be on the same wavelength with someone is to become rich internally. The hipster “cuts through” this in the sense that it is impossible to comprehend someone or something without feeling the rhythm of the internal vibration of the object of comprehension. I remember once my black friend once held an intellectual conversation with a white girl who had a college behind her for half an hour. This Negro literally couldn’t read or write, but had a surprisingly sensitive ear and the gift of mimicry to the interlocutor. ”
A hipster , according to Meiler, is a rebel who opposes both his own and others. The hipster is kind, inclined to aggression and violence and concentrated solely on his desires. He not only despises social norms, but is not at all able to think about the welfare of other people. (The content of the hipster concept has changed significantly since the essay was created.)
Notes
Links
- The White Negro . Text of the essay on Dissent magazine website