Jack Kerouac is among the most important and influential writers to emerge from mid-twentieth century America. Founder of the Beat Generation literary movement, Kerouac's most famous novel, On the Road, was known as the bible of this generation, and inspired untold people to question the rigid social and cultural expectations of 1950s America. And yet despite its undeniable influence, On the Road is only a small piece of Kerouac's literary achievement, and there are now well over forty Kerouac books published. The centerpiece to this work is Kerouac's multi-volume Duluoz Legend, named for his fictional alter-ego, Jack Duluoz, and comprising numerous books written over decades that together tell the story of Duluoz's life and times. This volume offers fresh perspectives on his multifaceted body of work, ranging from detailed analyses of his most significant books to wide-angle perspectives that place Kerouac in key literary, theoretical, and cultural contexts.
Edited by:
Steven Belletto (Lafayette College Pennsylvania)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 18mm
Weight: 524g
ISBN: 9781009423564
ISBN 10: 1009423568
Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature
Pages: 322
Publication Date: 27 June 2024
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. Kerouac's concept of his duluoz legend Ann Charters; 2. Kerouac and the profession of authorship Matt Theado; 3. Truth in confession: the foundation of Kerouac's literary experiment Nancy Grace; 4. The textuality of performance: Kerouac's spontaneous prose Tim Hunt; 5. The spontaneous aesthetic in the subterraneans George Mouritidas; 6. Kerouac and the 1950s Douglas Field; 7. The impact of on the road on the sixties' counterculture Kurt Hemmer; 8. Vanity of duluoz and the 1960s David Stephen Calonne; 9. Late Kerouac, or the conflicted 'king of the beatniks' Steven Belletto; 10. Visions of Cody as metafiction Michael Hrebeniak; 11. Making the past present: Kerouac and memory Erik Mortenson; 12. Spun rhythms: Kerouac as poet Regina Weinreich; 13. Kerouac's representations of women Ronna Johnson; 14. Kerouac and blackness Amor Kohli; 15. Kerouac, multilingualism, and global culture Hassan Melehy; 16. The two phases of Kerouac's American Buddhism Sarah Haynes; 17. Kerouac's ambivalences as an environmental writer Franca Bellarsi; 18. The essentials of archival prose Jean-Christophe Cloutier.
Steven Belletto is author of The Beats: A Literary History (2020) (a Choice Outstanding Academic title) and No Accident, Comrade: Chance and Design in Cold War American Narratives (2012). He also edited The Cambridge Companion to the Beats (2017) and American Literature in Transition, 1950–1960 (2018). He is a professor of English at Lafayette College.
