From Naked Lunch to Anti-Oedipus: Investigating the Intellectual History of the Development of Counterculture

• Thesis title in Czech: Mezi Nahým Obědem a Anti-Oidipem: Studium intelektuální historie vývoje kontrakultury
• Thesis title in English: From Naked Lunch to Anti-Oedipus: Investigating the Intellectual History of the Development of Counterculture
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2019/2020
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: Louis Armand, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 11.12.2019
• Date of assignment: 11.12.2019
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 19.12.2019
• Date and time of defence: 09.09.2021 00:00
• Submitted/archived: archived

Guidelines

In my MA thesis, I will explore the intellectual history of counterculture as it evolved between two seminal works, those of William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch (1959) and Anti-Oedipus (1972), the first volume of Deleuze and Guattari’s Capitalism and Schizophrenia. In my thesis I will investigate how counterculture(s) evolved, starting with the Beat movement and continuing into the various artistic scenes of the 1960’s and 1970’s, particularly in the UK and the USA. I will approach the study as a history of ideas, examining the paradigmatic change that ultimately culminates in the publication of Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Counterculture and the Underground form a cultural ‘other’ that manifests the collective unconscious, opposing authoritarianism and control. This attitude towards control can be traced to Burroughs’ work, be it in his fiction or non-fiction, which ultimately collapse into each other. As a result, schizophrenia becomes a valid point of examination. For Burroughs, control is fundamentally antagonistic towards sensuality, as it seeks to control the creation of propositions, something that sensuality actively undermines. The term ‘schizophrenia’ in my thesis will not be understood as a clinical entity but rather as ‘pure process’ in the Deleuzian sense of the word. The very idea of the underground and counterculture then deconstructs the method of historicization, which then requires a critical reformulation.

References

Bolton, M. S. Mosaic of Juxtaposition: William S. Burroughs‘ Narrative Revolution. Amsterdam, Editions Rodopi, 2014

Burroughs, W. S. Naked Lunch. Reprint. London, Harper Perennial, 1959

Burroughs, W. S. The Soft Machine. Reprint. London, Fourth Estate, 1961

Burroughs, W. S. The Ticket That Exploded. Reprint. London, Fourth Estate, 1962

Burroughs, W. S. Nova Express. Reprint. New York, Grove Press, 1964

Burroughs, W. S. The Job. London, Penguin, 2008

Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. Anti-Oedipus. Reprint. London, Continuum, 1972

Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. A Thousand Plateaus. Reprint. London, Continuum, 1980

Desmond, J., McDonagh, P. and O’Donohoe, S. “Counter-culture and consumer society.” Consumption Markets &
Culture, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 241-279. Taylor and Francis Online.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10253866.2000.9670358

Elkoly, S. N. (Ed). The Philosophy of the Beats. Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 2012

Green, Jonathon. Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground, 1961-1971. London, Pimlico, 1988

Harris, O. William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination. Carbondale and Edwardsville, Southern Illinois Univerzity Press, 2003

Nedoh, B., Zevnik, A. Lacan and Deleuze: A Disjunctive Synthesis. Edingburg, University of Edinburgh Press. 2017

Roszak, T. The Making of a Counter Culture. London, University of California Press, 1969

Schneiderman, D., Walsh, P. (Eds.). Retaking the Universe: William S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization. London, Pluto Press, 2004