Literatures of Exile and Return : Jack Kerouac and Quebec

Melehy, Hassan

Critical article exploring two of Jack Kerouac's novels - "Doctor Sax" and "Satori in Paris" - in a way that emphasizes the importance of Kerouac's "translingual" identity, cultural heritage, and his relationship to the diasporic history of the people of Québec and French Canada. How Québec literary scholarship has elevated Kerouac's prose to a level unmatched in the United States, where the author argues little attention has been paid to the influence of Kerouac's cultural and linguistic identity on his American writing. A comparative close-reading of Québec writer Jacques Poulin's novel, "Volkswagen Blues," and the various debts it owes to Kerouac.

2012-09

en

Journal Article

20th century

Lowell, Massachusetts

0002-9831 (print)

1527-2117 (online)

American Literature

84

3

589-615