Punk literature (also called punk lit and, rarely, punklit) is literature related to the

punk subculture The punk subculture includes a diverse and widely known array of Punk rock, music, Punk ideologies, ideologies, Punk fashion, fashion, and other forms of expression, Punk visual art, visual art, dance, Punk literature, literature, and film. La ...

. The attitude and ideologies of

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

gave rise to distinctive characteristics in the writing it manifested. It has influenced the

transgressional fiction Transgressive fiction is a genre of literature which focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who break free of those confines in unusual or illicit ways. Literary context Because they are rebelling ...

literary genre, the

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

genre and their derivatives.

Journalism

The punk rock subculture has had its own underground press in the form of punk zines, which are punk-related print magazines produced independently and distributed on a small scale. Many regional punk scenes have had at least one punk zine, which features news, gossip, social commentary, music reviews and interviews with punk rock bands. Notable punk zines include ''

Maximum RocknRoll ''Maximumrocknroll'', often written as ''Maximum Rocknroll'' and usually abbreviated as ''MRR'', is a not-for-profit monthly online zine of punk subculture and radio show of punk music. Based in San Francisco, ''MRR'' focuses on punk rock and ...

'', ''

Punk Planet ''Punk Planet'' was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering m ...

'', ''

Cometbus Aaron Elliott (born May 20, 1968), better known as Aaron Cometbus, is an American musician, author, songwriter, roadie, and magazine editor, best known as the creator of the punk zine ''Cometbus''. Career Born in Berkeley, California, Cometbus ...

'', ''

Girl Germs ''Girl Germs'' was a zine created by University of Oregon students Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman, both members of the band Bratmobile. Feminism was influential in the Pacific Northwest in the early nineties: ''Girl Germs'' identified feminis ...

'', '' Kill Your Pet Puppy'', '' J.D.s'', ''

Sniffin' Glue ''Sniffin' Glue and Other Rock 'N' Roll Habits for punks'', widely known as simply ''Sniffin' Glue'', was a British monthly punk zine started by Mark Perry in July 1976 and released for about a year. The name is derived from a Ramones song "Now ...

'', ''

Absolutely Zippo Robert Burnett, (born 1973) better known as Robert eggplant, is an American writer, publisher, musician and activist from Pinole, California, United States. Background Robert eggplant has been the editor and publisher of the ''Absolutely Zippo' ...

'', ''Suburban Rebels'' and '' Punk Magazine''. Notable punk journalists and magazine contributors include

Mykel Board Mykel Board (born January 31, 1950) is an American journalist, musician, and writer of English-language haiku. Bibliography * ''Even A Daughter Is Better Than Nothing'' Garrett Country Press (2005) * ''I A, Me-ist'' Hope and Nonthings Press ...

John Holmstrom John Holmstrom (born 1954) is an American underground cartoonist and writer. He is best known for illustrating the covers of the Ramones albums ''Rocket to Russia'' and '' Road to Ruin'', as well as his characters Bosko and Joe (published in Sc ...

Robert Eggplant Robert Burnett, (born 1973) better known as Robert eggplant, is an American writer, publisher, musician and activist from Pinole, California, United States. Background Robert eggplant has been the editor and publisher of the ''Absolutely Zippo' ...

and

Aaron Cometbus Aaron Elliott (born May 20, 1968), better known as Aaron Cometbus, is an American musician, author, songwriter, roadie, and magazine editor, best known as the creator of the punk zine ''Cometbus''. Career Born in Berkeley, California, Cometbus ...

Poetry

Many punk poets are also musicians, including

Richard Hell Richard Lester Meyers (born October 2, 1949), better known by his stage name Richard Hell, is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer. Hell was in several important early punk rock bands, including Neon Boys, Television (band), ...

Jim Carroll James Dennis Carroll (August 1, 1949 – September 11, 2009) was an American author, poet, and punk musician. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work '' The Basketball Diaries'', which inspired a 1995 film of the same title ...

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...

John Cooper Clarke John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet and comedian who styled himself as a "punk poet" in the late 1970s. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he released several albums and performed on stage with punk and post-punk ...

Nick Toczek Nick Toczek (born 20 September 1950; Shipley, England) is a British writer and performer working variously as poet, journalist, magician, vocalist, lyricist and radio broadcaster. He was raised in Bradford and then took a degree in Industrial M ...

Raegan Butcher CrimethInc., also known as CWC, which stands for either "CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective" or "CrimethInc Ex-Workers Ex-Collective", is a decentralized anarchist collective of autonomous cells. * * * CrimethInc. emerged in the mid-1990s, init ...

and

Attila the Stockbroker John Baine (born 21 October 1957), better known by his stage name Attila the Stockbroker,Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 208 is an English punk poet, multi instrumentalist musician and songwriter. He ...

. Carroll's autobiographical works are among the first-known examples of punk literature.

The Medway Poets The Medway Poets were founded in Medway, Kent, in 1979. They were an English punk based poetry performance group and later formed the core of the first Stuckists Art Group. The members were Miriam Carney, Billy Childish, Robert Earl, Bill Lewi ...

, an English punk poetry performance group founded in 1979, included punk musician

Billy Childish Billy Childish (born Steven John Hamper; 1 December 1959) is an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer, and guitarist. Since the late 1970s, Childish has been prolific in creating music, writing, and visual art. He has ...

. They are credited with influencing

Tracey Emin Dame Tracey Karima Emin (; born 3 July 1963) is an English artist known for autobiographical and confessional artwork. She produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, Neon lighting, neon text ...

, who was associated with them as a teenager. Members of the Medway Poets later formed the Stuckists art group.

Charles Thomson Charles Thomson (November 29, 1729 – August 16, 1824) was an Irish-born Founding Father of the United States and secretary of the Continental Congress (1774–1789) throughout its existence. As secretary, Thomson prepared the Journals of the ...

's description of a Medway Poets performance highlights its difference from a traditional poetry reading:

Bill Lewis William Lewis (born 1 August 1953) is an England, English artist, story-teller, poet and mythographer.Milner, Frank, ed. ''The Stuckists Punk Victorian'', p. 86, National Museums Liverpool 2004, . Pages 6–30, Charles Thomson (artist), Char ...
jumped on a chair, threw his arms wide (at least once hitting his head on the ceiling) and pretended he was Jesus. Billy sprayed his poems over anyone too close to him and drank whisky excessively. Miriam told the world about her vagina. Rob and I did a joint performance posing, with little difficulty, as deranged, self-obsessed writers. Sexton finally introduced us to his girlfriend, Mildred, who turned out to be a wig on a wadge of newspaper on the end of an iron pipe."1979" from "A Stuckist on Stuckism", Charles Thomson, 2004
Accessed April 9, 2006

Inspired by punk poet John Cooper Clarke and dub poet

Linton Kwesi Johnson Linton Kwesi Johnson Order of Distinction, OD (born 24 August 1952), also known as LKJ, is a Jamaica-born, British-based dub poetry, dub poet and activist. In 2002, he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in th ...

, a ''ranting poetry'' scene developed in the early 80s, which included performers such as "Seething" Wells, Joolz, Attila the Stockbroker, Porky the Poet, "Teething" Wells, Garry Johnson, The Big J, Little Brother, Swift Nick, Little Dave and Ginger John. Ranting poets often provided support at punk/new wave gigs and some went on to release their own records or appear on punk compilations.

Fiction

The punk subculture has greatly influenced the

literary genre A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by List of narrative techniques, literary technique, Tone (literature), tone, Media (communication), content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from mor ...

and its various derivatives.

Punk zines A punk zine (or punkzine) is a zine related to the punk subculture and hardcore punk music genre. Often primitively or casually produced, they feature punk literature, such as social commentary, punk poetry, news, gossip, music reviews and art ...

have spawned a considerable amount of punk-oriented fiction, some of which has made an impact outside of punk circles. Many of the major works of

Kathy Acker Kathy Acker (April 18, 1947 isputed– November 30, 1997) was an American experimental novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, critic, performance artist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that deal ...

reflect themes of punk literature, most notably ''

Blood and Guts in High School ''Blood and Guts in High School'' is a novel by Kathy Acker. It was written in the 1970s and copyrighted in 1978, first being published in 1984. It remains Acker's most popular and best-selling book. The novel is a metafictional text, aware of its ...

''. Daphne Gottlieb's poetic works are similar in motif. The novelist and screenwriter

Diablo Cody Brook Maurio (previously Busey-Hunt; ''née'' Busey; born June 14, 1978), known professionally by the pen name Diablo Cody, is an American writer and producer. She gained recognition for her candid blog and subsequent memoir, ''Candy Girl: A Year ...

has self-identified as "punk" in the past. '' Love and Rockets'' is a comic with a plot involving the Los Angeles punk scene. Jack O'Donnell, the protagonist in Ben MacNamara's 2004 ''Fire Work'' embodies many of the qualities of the punk ethos.

Journalism

Poetry

Fiction

See also

References

Further reading