Understanding William S. Burroughs PDF
Preview Understanding William S. Burroughs
UNDERSTANDING WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE Matthew J. Bruccoli, Founding Editor Linda Wagner-Martin, Series Editor Also of Interest Understanding the Beats, by Edward Halsey Foster Understanding Colson Whitehead, by Derek C. Maus Understanding David Mamet, by Brenda Murphy Understanding Edmund White, by Nicholas F. Radel Understanding Gerald Vizenor, by Deborah L. Madsen Understanding Jack Kerouac, by Matt Theado Understanding Jim Grimsley, by David Deutsch Understanding John Gardner, by John M. Howell Understanding John Updike, by Frederic Svoboda Understanding Nelson Algren, by Brooke Horvath Understanding T. C. Boyle, by Paul Gleason Understanding William Gibson, by Gerald Alva Miller Jr. UNDERSTANDING WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS Gerald Alva Miller, Jr. © 2020 University of South Carolina Published by the University of South Carolina Press Columbia, South Carolina 29208 www.sc.edu/uscpress 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/. ISBN 978-1-64336-034-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-64336-081-2 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-64336-033-1 (ebook) Front cover photograph: © Ulf Andersen https://ulfandersen.photoshelter.com For Jane, whose beautiful smile, witty charm, and cleverness have brought new inspiration into my life CONTENTS Series Editor’s Preface ix Chapter 1 Understanding William S. Burroughs 1 Chapter 2 Desire and the Ugly Spirit: Obsession, Addiction, and Jouissance in Burroughs’s Early Fiction 26 Chapter 3 The End of Their Forks: The Microphysics of Power in Naked Lunch 48 Chapter 4 Rub Out the Word: The Nova Trilogy and the Severing of the Signifier 63 Chapter 5 Rainbow Jockstraps and Death Gods: The Nomadic War Machine in The Wild Boys Period 90 Chapter 6 Out of Time and into Space: Humanity’s Evolutionary Potential in the “Red Night” Novels 98 Chapter 7 Love: The Final Revolutionary Force 118 Epilogue: “Minutes to go, the heat are closing in” 125 Notes 127 Selected Bibliography 129 Index 137 SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE The Understanding Contemporary American Literature series was founded by the estimable Matthew J. Bruccoli (1931–2008), who envisioned these volumes as guides or companions for students as well as good nonacademic readers, a legacy that will continue as new volumes are developed to fill in gaps among the nearly one hundred series volumes published to date and to embrace a host of new writers only now making their marks on our literature. As Professor Bruccoli explained in his preface to the volumes he edited, because much influential contemporary literature makes special demands, “the word understanding in the titles was chosen deliberately. Many willing readers lack an adequate understanding of how contemporary literature works; that is, of what the author is attempting to express and the means by which it is conveyed.” Aimed at fostering this understanding of good literature and good writers, the criticism and analysis in the series provide instruction in how to read certain contemporary writers—explicating their material, language, structures, themes, and perspectives—and facilitate a more profitable experi- ence of the works under discussion. In the twenty-first century Professor Bruccoli’s prescience gives us an ave- nue to publish expert critiques of significant contemporary American writing. The series continues to map the literary landscape and to provide both instruc- tion and enjoyment. Future volumes will seek to introduce new voices along- side canonized favorites, to chronicle the changing literature of our times, and to remain, as Professor Bruccoli conceived, contemporary in the best sense of the word. Linda Wagner-Martin, Series Editor
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