A movement originating in the United States during the 1950s that began primarily with literature but encompasses other social and artistic modes. Mostly an urban phenomenon, centers included artist communities in San Francisco’s North Beach and Greenwich Village in New York City. In popular culture participants of this loose movement were referred to derisively as “beatniks.” Progenitors of the movement are considered to be the writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg and William Burroughs.
