Where are we going man I dont know

“Where are we going, man? ” “I don’t know but we gotta go. ” Jack Kerouac (1922 -1969) Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac 1. Life • Born in Lowel, Massachusetts in 1922. • Educated at Columbia University. • At the end of WWII, he began travelling across the States. Jack Kerouac. Only Connect. . . New Directions

Jack Kerouac 1. Life • In New York he met the intellectual Neal Cassidy, the poet Allen Ginsberg and the novelist William Borroughs. • After his hitch-hiking across America with Cassidy, he wrote the novel On The Road (1957). Only Connect. . . New Directions Jack Kerouac.

Jack Kerouac 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. Only Connect. . . New Directions Jack Kerouac.

Jack Kerouac 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 and Buddhism. Only Connect. . . New Directions A beatnik rock’n’roll compilation

Jack Kerouac 3. The beatniks. . . • Suffix -nik borrowed from Sputnik, a Russian satellite. • Their main features: illegal way of life, acting on first impulses. • They advocated escapism and created underground culture. Only Connect. . . New Directions A group of Beatniks, 1950 s.

Jack Kerouac 4. . and their influence upon artistic movements • Spiritual and sexual liberation. • Liberation from censorship. • Decriminalization of the use of marijuana. • The evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll. The Hip, a 1986 book about the Beat Generation Only Connect. . . New Directions

Jack Kerouac 4. . and their influence upon artistic movements • The spread of ecological consciousness. • Attention to a “second religiousness”. • Respect for land indigenous peoples and creatures “The Earth is an Indian thing”. The Hip, a 1986 book about the Beat Generation Only Connect. . . New Directions

Jack Kerouac 5. On the Road “Because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, (. . ) the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars” A contemporary edition of On the Road. Only Connect. . . New Directions

Jack Kerouac 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 an escape from the town and from one’s own past. A contemporary edition of On the Road. Only Connect. . . New Directions

Jack Kerouac 6. On the Road: structure • Sal (the narrator) stands for Kerouac himself. • 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. Only Connect. . . New Directions A contemporary edition of On the Road.

Jack Kerouac 7. On the Road: Dean Moriarty, the protagonist Neil Cassidy and Jack Kerouac • A fictionalised Neal Cassidy. • He lives for “kicks” moments of intense experience and pleasure. • He is the symbol of the attempt to live every moment with intensity. “Ahead of him was the ragged and ecstatic joy of pure being” Only Connect. . . New Directions

Jack Kerouac 8. On the Road: style and language • Spontaneous and episodic. • Natural explosion of feelings and thoughts. • Unsophisticated language, defined “hip talk”. • Vital, authentic, alive and individual language. • Opposite to conventional language. • Break with the impersonality of the artist. Only Connect. . . New Directions