1 / 18

Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac . “Where are we going, man?” “I don’t know but we gotta go.”. 1. Life. Born in Lowel , Massachusetts in 1922 . Educated at Columbia University . At the end of WWII, he began travelling across the States . 1. Life.

carver
Download Presentation

Jack Kerouac

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Jack Kerouac “Where are we going, man?” “I don’t know but we gotta go.”

  2. 1. Life • Born inLowel, Massachusetts in 1922. • Educated at Columbia University. • At the end of WWII, hebegantravellingacross the States.

  3. 1. Life • In New Yorkhe met the intellectual Neal Cassidy and the poet Allen Ginsberg. • After his hitch-hiking across America with Cassidy, he wrote the novel On The Road(1957).

  4. 1. Life • Frightened by his popularity, he became more and more addicted to alcohol. • His novel Big Sur(1962) contains an account of the disintegration of all his hopes. • He died in 1969 at the age of forty-seven.

  5. Major Works by Jack Kerouac • The Town and the City, 1950 • On the Road, 1957 • The Dharma Bums, 1958 • The Subterraneans, 1958 • Big Sur, 1962 • Visions of Gerard, 1963 • Vanity of Duluoz, 1968

  6. 2. The term “Beat Generation • Invented by Kerouac in 1948. • Introduced to the public by an article on “New York Times Magazine”. • Beat = • 1. tired reaction against capitalism and Puritan middle-class values. • 2. beatific Kerouac’s reverence for certain aspects of Catholicism

  7. 3. The beatniks... • Suffix -nikborrowed from Sputnik, a Russian satellite. • Their main features: illegal way of life, acting on first impulses. • They advocatedescapism and created underground culture.

  8. 4. ...and theirinfluenceuponartisticmovements • Spiritual and sexual liberation. • Liberation fromcensorship. • Decriminalizationof the use of marijuana. • The evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll.

  9. 4. ...and theirinfluenceuponartisticmovements • The spread of ecological consciousness. • Attention to a “second religiousness”. • Respect for land and indigenous peoples and creatures

  10. The book The film

  11. 5. On the Road “Because the only people for me are the madones, the oneswho are madto live, (..) the oneswhoneveryawn or say a commonplacething, butburn, burn, burnlikefabulous yellow romancandlesexplodinglikespidersacross the stars”

  12. Plot Summary In the winter of 1947, the reckless and joyous Dean Moriarty, fresh out of another stint in jail and newly married, comes to New York City and meets Sal Paradise, a young writer with an intellectual group of friends, among them the poet Carlo Marx. Dean fascinates Sal, and their friendship begins three years of restless journeys back and forth across the country. With a combination of bus rides and adventurous hitchhiking escapades, Sal goes to his much-dreamed-of west to join Dean and more friends in Denver, and then continues west by himself, working as a fieldworker in California for awhile, among other things. The next year, Dean comes east to Sal again, foiling Sal's stable life once more, and they drive west together, with more crazy adventures on the way at Bull Lee's in New Orleans, ending in San Francisco this time. The winter after that, Sal goes to Dean, and they blaze across the country together in friendly fashion, and Dean settles in New York for awhile. In the spring, Sal goes to Denver alone, but Dean soon joins him and they go south all the way to Mexico City this time. Through all of this constant movement, there is an array of colorful characters, shifting landscapes, dramas, and personal development. Dean, a big womanizer, will have three wives and four children in the course of these three years. Perceptive Sal, who at the beginning is weakened and depressed, gains in joy and confidence and finds love at the end. At first Sal is intrigued by Dean because Dean seems to have the active, impulsive passion that Sal lacks, but they turn out to have a lot more in common. The story is in the details.

  13. 6. On the Road: structure • Story of a friendship. • Diary-like account of Kerouac’s wanderings across North America. • It lacks a central plot episodic structure. • Theme of the journey anescape from the town and from one’s own past

  14. 6. On the Road: structure • Sal (the narrator) stands for Kerouachimself. • Dean stands for Kerouac’s friend Neal Cassidy. • Sal and Dean are linked to the same restlessness. • They keep on moving without a fixed goal.

  15. 7. On the Road: Dean Moriarty, the protagonist • A fictionalisedNeal Cassidy. • He lives for “kicks” moments of intense experience and pleasure. • He is the symbol of the attempt to live every moment with intensity.

  16. 8. On the Road: style and language • Spontaneousand episodic. • Natural explosion of feelings and thoughts. • Unsophisticated language, defined “hip talk”. • Vital, authentic, aliveand individuallanguage. • Opposite to conventional language. • Break with the impersonalityof the artist.

  17. 9. On the Road: the film “Comingsoon”

  18. 10. The themeofJourney Travel = Culture Differentschool or work Knowledges Changeoursideasof culture Knownew people Literature Rules Change the stereotyps Religion History Live withother people Personality Improveyoursenseofindipendence Lifestyle

More Related