“Your Goal Is Your Starting Place:” The Transformative Forces of the Road in the Novels of Jack Kerouac.
| Thesis title in Czech: | "Tvůj cíl je tam, odkud jsi vyšel": Transformativní význam motivu cesty v románech Jacka Kerouaca |
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| Thesis title in English: | “Your Goal Is Your Starting Place:” The Transformative Forces of the Road in the Novels of Jack Kerouac. |
| Key words: | mobilita|cesta|Jack Kerouac|Beat Generation|americká literatura|identita|cestopis|transformace|osvobození|duchovní pátrání|společenský protest|Západ |
| English key words: | mobility|journey|road|Jack Kerouac|Beat Generation|American literature|identity|travel literature|transformation|liberation|spiritual quest|social prostest|West |
| Academic year of topic announcement: | 2017/2018 |
| Thesis type: | diploma thesis |
| Thesis language: | angličtina |
| Department: | Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK) |
| Supervisor: | Mgr. Petr Onufer, Ph.D. |
| Author: | hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept. |
| Date of registration: | 29.11.2017 |
| Date of assignment: | 29.11.2017 |
| Administrator's approval: | not processed yet |
| Confirmed by Study dept. on: | 06.12.2017 |
| Date and time of defence: | 10.09.2019 00:00 |
| Date of electronic submission: | 19.08.2019 |
| Date of proceeded defence: | 10.09.2019 |
| Submitted/finalized: | committed by student and finalized |
| Opponents: | PhDr. Hana Ulmanová, Ph.D. |
| Guidelines |
| Zásady pro vypracování (anotace): Jack Kerouac and other Beat Generation authors explored in their fiction themes that deeply influenced American culture and politics. While their beliefs were often at variance with the basic assumptions of the American society, their works were concerned with a number of traditional subjects, such as individual freedom, spiritual liberation, and self-knowledge. The members of the Beat Generation pursued these values in various ways – through drugs, in literature, or on the road. Especially in the novels of Jack Kerouac, the image of the road constitutes both the main theme and the basis of meaning. The present study explores the development of this motif in his works, as well as its manifestation in Kerouac’s life and thinking. As a traditional component of literary works, the road is dealt with in both its physical and spiritual sense, through its influence on the body and the mind of the characters. Furthermore, the road is perceived as a means of self-discovery, liberation and transformation, not only of the protagonists of Kerouac’s works, but also the author himself and his attitude to American society. While the theoretical part of the thesis provides a brief introduction to the basic notions of the Beat Generation and the role of the road in their theory and writing, as well as in the history of American literature as such, the practical part analyzes Kerouac’s novels in the light of his association with this movement and in terms of his individual artistic persona. |
| References |
| Seznam odborné literatury: Amburn Ellis, Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac. New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1999. Anctil, Pierre, et al. Un Homme Grand: Jack Kerouac at the Crossroads of Many Cultures. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1990. Bluefarb, James. The Escape Motif in the American Novel: Mark Twain to Richard Wright. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1972. Campbell, James. This Is the Beat Generation. London: Vintage, 2000. Casey, Roger N. Textual Vehicles: The Automobile in American Literature. New York:Garland, 1997. Chandarlapaty, Raj. The Beat generation and Counterculture: Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2009. Charters, Ann and Samuel. Brother Souls: John Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac, and the Beat Generation. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010. Cresswell, Tim. “Mobility as Resistance: A Geographical Reading of Kerouac’s ‘On the Road.’” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 18.2 (1993): 249-262. JSTOR Dettelbach, Cynthia Golomb. In the Driver’s Seat: The Automobile in American Literature and Popular Culture. Connecticut: Greenwood, 1976. Fiedler, Leslie A. “Adolescence and Maturity in the American Novel.” The New Republic (May 1955) 16–18. Love and Death in the American Novel. New York: Criterion Books, 1960. Gair, Christopher. The Beat Generation: A Beginner’s Guide. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2008. García-Robles, Jorge. At the End of the Road: Jack Kerouac in Mexico. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. Giamo, Benedict. “Enlightened Attachment: Kerouac’s Impermanent Buddhist Trek.” Religion & Literature 35.2/3 (2003): 173-206. JSTOR Hemmer, Kurt. Encyclopedia of Beat Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007. Holladay, Hilary, and Holton, Robert. What’s Your Road, Man? Critical Essays on Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Carbondale: SIU Press, 2009. Hrebeniak, Michael. Action Writing: Jack Kerouac’s Wild Form. Carbondale: SIU Press, 2006. |