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Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend: The Mythic Form of an Autobiographical Fiction
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Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend: The Mythic Form of an Autobiographical Fiction Hardcover - 1999

by Jones, James T


From the publisher

In the only critical examination of all of Jack Kerouac's published prose, James T. Jones turns to Freud to show how the great Beat writer used the Oedipus myth to shape not only his individual works but also the entire body of his writing.

Like Balzac, Jones explains, Kerouac conceived an overall plan for his total writing corpus, which he called the Duluoz Legend after Jack Duluoz, his fictional alter ego. While Kerouac's work attracts biographical treatmentthe ninth full-length biography was published in 1998Jones takes a Freudian approach to focus on the form of the work. Noting that even casual readers recognize family relationships as the basis for Kerouac's autobiographical prose, Jones discusses these relationships in terms of Freud's notion of the Oedipus complex.

After establishing the basic biographical facts and explaining Freud's application of the Oedipus myth, Jones explicates Kerouac's novels of childhood and adolescence, focusing on sibling rivalry. Supporting his contention that the Beat writer worked according to a plan, Jones then shows how Kerouac revised "The Town and the City" (1950), his first published novel, in "Vanity of Duluoz," the last novel published in his lifetime, to de-emphasize the death of the father. He treats three versions of Kerouac's road novelincluding "On the Road"as versions of Oedipus's fateful journey from Corinth to Thebes. And he argues that "Pic," often considered peripheral to the Duluoz Legend, replicates the Oedipal themes.

Jones demonstrates that "Maggie Cassidy," "The Subterraneans," and "Tristessa" share a form that results from Kerouac's unresolved rivalry with his father for the love of his mother. He discusses Kerouac's replacement of the destructive brother figures in "On the Road" and "Visions of Cody" with the constructive hero of "The Dharma Bums." He also shows how the Oedipal structure of the Duluoz Legend applies to Kerouac's nonfiction.

In the penultimate chapter, Jones explains how "Big Sur," Kerouac's story of his alcohol-induced nervous breakdown, actually marks the climax of the Duluoz Legend. The alcoholism, Jones insists, is not the cause but a symptom of a breakdown brought on by his attachment to his mother. He shows how Kerouac's obsession with his family repeats Oedipal themes throughout the Duluoz Legend. Finally, he deals with Oedipal themes in Kerouac's nonnarrative work, including "Old Angel Midnight," "Some of the Dharma," "The Scripture of the Golden Eternity," and several poems."

Details

  • Title Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend: The Mythic Form of an Autobiographical Fiction
  • Author Jones, James T
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First edition
  • Pages 278
  • Publisher Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale :
  • Date 1999
  • ISBN 9780809322633

About the author

James T. Jones, a professor of English at Southwest Missouri State University, is the author of "A Map of Mexico City Blues: Jack Kerouac as Poet" and "Use My Name: Jack Kerouac"'"s Forgotten Families."
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Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend: The Mythic Form of an Autobiographical Fiction
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Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend: The Mythic Form of an Autobiographical Fiction

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Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend: the mythic form of an autobiographical fiction

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Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999 Book. Near Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. Octavo. xii (iv), 278 (2) pp, . First Edition, 1999. Not Price Clipped. Only the faintest wear to top edge spine dj with a crease to top fore-edge pp. 14 & 17, else, Pristine, no wear. No markings, tight binding, pages clean. 6.25" x 9.25." Purple cloth with gilt lettering to spine. DJ in removable acetate protector. "In the only critical examination of all of Jack Kerouac's published prose, The author turns to Freud to show how the great Beat writer used the Oedipus myth to shape not only his individual works but also the entire body of his writing, and Like Balzac, Jones explains, Kerouac conceived an overall plan for his total writing corpus, which he called the Duluoz Legend after Jack Duluoz, his fictional alter ego.".
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Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend: The Mythic Form of an Autobiographical Fiction
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Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend: The Mythic Form of an Autobiographical Fiction

by Jones, James T

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