Rubbing Out Forever or Cutting Up? Dialectics the Mystical and the Subversive Attitude to Language in William Burroughs'The Nova Trilogy

被引:1
作者
Stopel, Bartosz [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Silesia Katowice, Inst Literary Studies, Katowice, Poland
关键词
William S; Burroughs; cut-up; mysticism; counterculture; Beat Generation;
D O I
10.1080/00111619.2020.1817842
中图分类号
I [文学];
学科分类号
05 ;
摘要
The article sets out to explore what role Burroughs' critique of language, his famous "word virus" theory plays in his overall social commentary present in his Nova Trilogy. It argues that even though Burroughs can be called a fresh social critic of his times, anticipating and being in dialogue with a number of influential cultural theories, what makes him distinct is his placing language as the ultimate foundation of whatever he satirizes or derides via his fiction. More importantly, however, the article traces how Burroughs keeps being trapped in a dialectic of two poles of countercultural approach to language. On the one hand, he yearns to go beyond language, aligning himself with the mystical tradition of the likes of Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts or Allen Ginsberg. On the other hand, his overall pessimism and skepticism throws him into the arms of the bohemian-rooted Dadaist subversion of language partly reinforced by the theory of General Semantics and exemplified in his cut-up technique. Burroughs, however, never fully commits to the subversion, working from within language and never lets go of the dream to "rub out the word forever" and "reach silence on objective levels."
引用
收藏
页码:57 / 66
页数:10
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