This essay focuses on gender roles, individualism and collectivism in Jack Kerouac’s classic road-trip novel On the Road. In order to put the discussion into a meaningful context, I look at the novel from a historical perspective and examine how it relates to post-war American society. I argue that the novel is, in many ways, representative of a society existing in a field of tension between individualism and collectivism, and that its notion of individual freedom, at the time revolutionary, can be seen as retrogressive with regard to the book’s portrayal and treatment of women. The essay features a discussion of what kind of individual freedom is presented in On the Road and how this freedom relates to typical American individualism as well as American post-war societal norms, the norm of the nuclear family in particular. This is followed by a brief analysis of how the novel influenced future generations, specifically in terms of sexual liberation. This analysis introduces a discussion of the way in which women are portrayed in the book and how this portrayal both represents collective progress in post- war America—women are often described as financially independent—and a phallocentric type of individualism. I then show that this individualism is connected to an unthinking optimism which, I argue, is one of the key causes of the retrogressive view of women exemplified by the book. My study ultimately demonstrates that the novel’s notion of individualism—an individualism which was highly influential for future generations and is usually viewed as progressive—can arguably be seen as retrogressive in terms of Kerouac's representation of gender roles.

The literary movement of the Beat Generation continues to be a truly influential movement in our current society. From the popularization of hitchhiking across America to the rebel without a cause of James Dean, the Hippie movement of the 60s, and the explosion of poetry readings in coffee shops, the Beats have been influential to much of the social change in the last half-century. Commonly the architects of the movement are referenced as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. However, the Beat Generation was much bigger than six "white" men who wrote novels and poetry about disenfranchised youths of the 1950s. The Beat Generation had at its center several women and artists of color who have helped to redefine the movement, such as Joan Vollmer, Bob Kaufman, Raul Salinas, and Anne Waldman. This project troubles the categorization of the Beat Generation as a static movement in postwar America, and redefines it as an adaptive ideology that continues through today's Beat Movement. In this dissertation, I have broken down the three most prominent rhetorical elements that have kept the Beat Movement operating for over sixty years. The first element is the Beat desire to write for the underclasses of America and eventually to produce writers to write from the underclasses. The second is the importance placed on performance in their poetry and how that has changed the face of poetry over the last half century. The third is the ability to build a community through small presses and magazines, while at the same time pushing the boundaries of gender roles, queer relationships, and interraciality.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Janet Swaffar. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Este trabalho constitui um estudo comparativo entre as produÃÃes literÃrias pinaculares da geraÃÃo beat americana de meados do sÃculo XX (âHowlâ de Allen Ginsberg e On the Road de Jack Kerouac) e as suas reescrituras fÃlmicas produzidas na primeira dÃcada do sÃculo XXI. Procuramos aqui trazer a diÃlogo as quatro obras e, fundamentando-nos em uma anÃlise do congresso de suas poÃticas, contribuir para o estudo de um processo que nos parece contemporaneamente inescapÃvel, a relaÃÃo entre cinema e literatura. Para tanto, a presente dissertaÃÃo consistirà do estudo das regularidades de comportamento do processo tradutor apresentadas no corpus que nos à possÃvel analisar de modo a deduzir e descrever as possÃveis normas sistÃmicas que subjazem e regulam as transposiÃÃes entre o sistema literÃrio beat e o sistema cinematogrÃfico contemporÃneo. Por outro lado, mas nÃo separadamente, na medida em que enxergamos as adaptaÃÃes como sistemas semiÃticos acabados, devemos considerar os contextos em que elas se inserem e que relaÃÃes elas desenvolvem dentro do sistema de chegada, alÃm de investigarmos possÃveis analogias com os contextos e sistemas de partida. Esperamos demonstrar que estes lados do problema se interligam se criarmos um campo tenso comum em que as obras possam dialogar, o que buscamos fazer atravÃs do estabelecimento de um princÃpio organizador, o tema comum da loucura. Nossa proposta Ã, finalmente, tentar igualar a importÃncia do produto da traduÃÃo e do elemento de partida em nossa anÃlise, transformando o campo dos estudos da traduÃÃo em algo mais prÃximo dos Estudos Comparados â de Cinema ou Literatura, como se nossos objetos fossem seres ontologicamente equiparÃveis. Pautamo-nos, para realizar esta tarefa, nos trabalhos de Walter Benjamin (2012), Mikhail Bakhtin (2010), Itamar Even-Zohar (1990), Jacques Derrida (1995), Maurice Blanchot (1987), Michel Foucault (1989), Gideon Toury (1995), Patrick Catrysse (1992), entre outros / This paper constitutes a comparative study between the pinnacle works of the American beat generation of the twentieth century (âHowlâ, by Allen Ginsberg, and On the road, by Jack Kerouac) e their filmic adaptations produced in the first decade of the twentieth first century. Our goal is to bring forth a dialogue established by these four objective elements, based on the analysis of the congress of their individual poetics, and, in light of this, to contribute to a process that appears to be contemporarily inescapable, the relations between cinema and literature. To this end, the following dissertation will consist of the study of regularities of behavior in the adaptation process presented in the corpus before us as a means of deducing and describing possible systemic norms that underlie and regulate the transpositions between the beat literary system and the contemporary cinematographic system. On the other hand, but not separately, as we understand adaptation as rounded semiotic systems, we must consider the contexts in which they are inserted and what relations they actualize within their arrival system, not only that but investigate possible analogies to the departure system, We hope to demonstrate that these different strands of the problem are intertwined and connected if we create a common filed of tension in which the art-works are able to sustain dialogue â this we endeavored to do with the stablishment of an organizing principle, the common theme of madness. Our goal is, ultimately, to try to equate the importance of the product of adaptation and its counterpart in our analysis, transforming the field of Translation Studies into something closer to Compared Studies â of Literature or Cinema, as if our objects of research were ontologically comparable entities. We base our endeavor to achieve this task in the works of Walter Benjamin (2012), Mikhail Bakhtin (2010), Itamar Even-Zohar (1990), Jacques Derrida (1995), Maurice Blanchot (1987), Michel Foucault (1989), Gideon Toury (1995), Patrick Catrysse (1992), amongst others.

My thesis explores the role of religion and spirituality in the work of the Beat Generation, a mid-twentieth century American literary movement. I focus on four major Beat authors: William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Gregory Corso. Through a close reading of their work, I identify the major religious and spiritual attitudes that shape their texts. All four authors’ religious and spiritual beliefs form a challenge to the Modern Western worldview of rationality, embracing systems of belief which allow for experiences that cannot be empirically explained. They also assert the primacy of the individual—a major American value—in a society which the authors believed to encroach upon individual agency. Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Corso are also strongly influenced by established religious traditions: an aspect of their work that is currently overlooked in Beat criticism. Burroughs’ belief in a magical universe shapes his work. Ginsberg is heavily influenced by the Jewish exegetical tradition. Kerouac and Corso’s work contains Catholic themes. My study rectifies some tendencies in current criticism which I find problematic: a dismissal of the Beats as a countercultural phenomenon rather than a literary movement, a tendency to frame Beat religion and spirituality in vague language, and a tendency to focus solely on Buddhism within the movement. My study illustrates that the Beat authors’ work contains serious religious and spiritual content, that they take part in American religious and literary traditions, and that the authors engage with major social issues of the post-war period.

The Beat rejection of conventional values meant a rejection of marriage, family, and a nine-to-five job, and few women were prepared to make that kind of radical shift in a society that condemned women for behaving the way the Beats behaved. Though she has faced difficulty in getting published, Beat writer Diane Di Prima has been publishing steadily for the past forty years. Di Prima has also lived the life of a Beat, wandering the country, avoiding nine-to-five work and supporting herself with grants, teaching and poetry readings. In spite of her success and adherence to the Beat lifestyle, Di Prima has given birth to five children, all of whom she took with her in her travels. Diane Di Prima has always faced the particular challenge of gaining the acceptance of her male peers amid indifference and hatred toward her sex while not allowing these men to go unanswered.

With the publication of On the Road in 1957, Jack Kerouac became a cultural phenomenon. Crowned the "King" of the Beat Generation, Kerouac embodied the restlessness of Cold War-era America. What no one realized at the time, however, was that the movement that he supposedly led went against Kerouac's own beliefs. Rather than rebellion, Kerouac wanted to write in a way that no one had written before. Heavily influenced by, among others, Mark Twain, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Marcel Proust, Herman Melville, and, especially, James Joyce, Kerouac used the influence of his predecessors to formulate his own style of writing-spontaneous prose. The critics who label Kerouac as a cultural icon akin to James Dean fail to see Kerouac as a serious author. The removal of the cultural fanfare surrounding Kerouac shows the truth about his writing, his influences, and his influence on late-twentieth century literature, including the entire postmodern movement.

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Cette thèse est une étude approfondie du rapport de William S. Burroughs au cinéma. William S. Burroughs, en collaboration avec Antony Balch, a produit entre 1961 et 1972 des courts-métrages expérimentaux aux formes de montage et de figuration radicales. Ces films, largement ignorés, constituent un pan essentiel du cinéma expérimental. Leur étude met en lumière l'évolution d'une pensée politico-esthétique de l'image chez Burroughs, une pensée voisine de celle de Guy Debord et qui influencera celle de Gilles Deleuze .Burroughs a également travaillé en tant qu'acteur : l'analyse de ses apparitions est ici pensée en fonction de leur rapport à l’œuvre écrite de Burroughs et à son versant biographique, l'écrivain déconstruisant les personnages qu'il joue de la même manière qu'il déconstruisait le cinéma. Un ensemble de films, répondant plus ou moins fidèlement à l’appellation d'adaptations, constituent un aspect important de notre corpus. Ces œuvres, qu'elles travaillent les écrits dans un rapport fondé sur la reproduction, le décalage, ou l'éclatement, produisent des formes inédites. Cette étude est complétée par un retour sur l'influence de Burroughs sur trois auteurs majeurs du cinéma nord-américain contemporain, Cronenberg, Van Sant et Lynch. Tous trois réinvestissent l’œuvre et la pensée de Burroughs dans le cadre de leur propre production, que ce retour se concentre sur l'apparition de la voix, le lien entre signature visuelle et présence ou la fragmentation de la narration classique. En mettant en relation expérimentations, présences et contaminations de l'écrivain au cinéma, ce travail vise la réhabilitation de ce versant de l’œuvre de William S. Burroughs. / This work is an exhaustive study of William S. Burroughs' interest in cinema. Burroughs, in collaboration with Antony Balch, produced between 1961 and 1972 a series of experimental short films with radical editing and visual styles. These widely ignored films are an essential part of experimental cinema. Their study highlights the evolution of the author's political and aesthetic vision, close to those of Guy Debord or Gilles Deleuze. Burroughs also worked as an actor. The analysis of his cinematographic apparitions is linked to their relation to Burroughs' written work and its biographical aspects: the writer deconstructs the characters he plays in the same way as he deconstructs the mise-en-scène.A set of films, which can loosely be said to be adaptations, are another important part of the corpus of this study. These works, in a relation to the written word based on reproduction, shift or blow-out, produce original cinematographic images.This study is completed with a flash-forward to Burroughs' influence on three important north-american filmmakers: David Cronenberg, Gus Van Sant and David Lynch. These three authors reinvest Burroughs' work within the framework of their own production, focusing on the apparition of the voice, the link between visual signature and the notion of presence or the shattering of a conventional narrative.Linking experimentations, presences and contaminations of the writer in the cinematographic art, this thesis aims to rehabilitate this part of Burroughs' work.