"You're Putting Me on": Jack Kerouac and the Postmodern Emergence

Johnson, Ronna C.

Article exploring the self-referential literature of Jack Kerouac as cause, commentary, and resistance to his "Beat Movement" celebrity in the 1950s and 1960s. How Jack's engagement with fame is exercised in his literature, or in other public appearances, and signals a literary ground on which American letters can begin to see characteristics of what would become known as "postmodern." Analysis of Kerouac's television appearance on The Steve Allen Show; emphasis on his novels "Vanity of Dulouz," "Visions of Cody," and "The Subterraneans," with constant reference to the success and interpretation of "On the Road." Explorations of critical thinker Michel Foucault's ideas on the concepts of "guilt" and "punishment," and of Jean Beaudrillard's notion of the "simulacrum."

2000-01-01

en

Journal Article

1950-1967

New York, New York

United States

0093-3139

College Literature

27

1

22-38