
Understanding Jack Kerouac
Matt Theado(Author)
University of South Carolina Press
Published on 29. May 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-1-57003-846-4 (ISBN)
Description
This is a concise companion to the novels of the king of the Beats. ""Understanding Jack Kerouac"" introduces readers to what Matt Theado calls Kerouac's 'unwieldy accretion of published work' - fiction, poetry, nonfiction, selected letters, religious writing, and 'true-story novels'. Presenting this cultural icon of the Beat Generation primarily as a writer rather than as a social rebel or media celebrity, Theado elucidates the reasons Kerouac's reputation has outlived disparaging beatnik associations and why his writings continue to attract an expanding readership. Theado takes a book-by-book approach to the sometimes-confusing canon and develops a framework for understanding Kerouac's thematic concerns, writing techniques, and artistic evolution. Proposing that the real legend of Jack Kerouac is the saga of a writer at work, Theado suggests that as recognition of Kerouac's artistic achievement grows, the Duluoz Legend - Kerouac's series of barely fictionalized re-creations of his life - outgrows the genre of autobiography and becomes an intimate chronicle of a writer's stylistic maturation. Theado traces Kerouac's development as a crafter of language and contends that spontaneous prose, Kerouac's literary hallmark, may prove to be his chief claim to literary longevity.
Reviews / Votes
Theado's approach encompasses just the right amount of biography, stylistic analysis, and fluent thematic interpretation to show that Kerouac opened new territory for American writers and did indeed succeed in making something new. - BooklistMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
South Carolina
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
271 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-57003-846-4 (9781570038464)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Matt Theado is a professor of English at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, and the author of The Beats: A Literary Reference.