Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac
- The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- A Kerouac Chronology
- Additional material
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Kerouac’s Concept of His Duluoz Legend
- Chapter 2 Kerouac and the Profession of Authorship
- Chapter 3 Truth in Confession
- Chapter 4 The Textuality of Performance
- Chapter 5 The Spontaneous Aesthetic in The Subterraneans
- Chapter 6 Kerouac and the 1950s
- Chapter 7 The Impact of On the Road on the 1960s Counterculture
- Chapter 8 Vanity of Duluoz and the 1960s
- Chapter 9 Late Kerouac, or the Conflicted “King of the Beatniks”
- Chapter 10 Visions of Cody as Metafiction
- Chapter 11 Making the Past Present
- Chapter 12 Spun Rhythms
- Chapter 13 Kerouac’s Representations of Women
- Chapter 14 Kerouac and Blackness
- Chapter 15 Kerouac, Multilingualism, and Global Culture
- Chapter 16 The Two Phases of Jack Kerouac’s American Buddhism
- Chapter 17 Jack Kerouac’s Ambivalences as an Environmental Writer
- Chapter 18 The Essentials of Archival Prose
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Chapter 14 - Kerouac and Blackness
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- The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac
- The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- A Kerouac Chronology
- Additional material
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Kerouac’s Concept of His Duluoz Legend
- Chapter 2 Kerouac and the Profession of Authorship
- Chapter 3 Truth in Confession
- Chapter 4 The Textuality of Performance
- Chapter 5 The Spontaneous Aesthetic in The Subterraneans
- Chapter 6 Kerouac and the 1950s
- Chapter 7 The Impact of On the Road on the 1960s Counterculture
- Chapter 8 Vanity of Duluoz and the 1960s
- Chapter 9 Late Kerouac, or the Conflicted “King of the Beatniks”
- Chapter 10 Visions of Cody as Metafiction
- Chapter 11 Making the Past Present
- Chapter 12 Spun Rhythms
- Chapter 13 Kerouac’s Representations of Women
- Chapter 14 Kerouac and Blackness
- Chapter 15 Kerouac, Multilingualism, and Global Culture
- Chapter 16 The Two Phases of Jack Kerouac’s American Buddhism
- Chapter 17 Jack Kerouac’s Ambivalences as an Environmental Writer
- Chapter 18 The Essentials of Archival Prose
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Summary
Kerouac referred to the Black American as “the essential American” and “the salvation of America,” phrases that, while never adequately explored in Kerouac’s writing, signal at least recognition of the centrality of Black Americans and Black American culture to the broader American society. This chapter explores how consumption of Black culture and Blackness as a catalytic theme weaves throughout Kerouac’s work and is key to his broader aesthetic philosophy. However, this chapter argues that his often superficial readings ignore the reality of Black constraint, subsequently rendering Black life discrepant with the lived experience of Blackness in America. Problematically, his longing is ultimately predicated on Black silence and evasion of Black interiority, and any identification with Blacks is transitory and does not ameliorate his uses of Blackness.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Jack Kerouac , pp. 192 - 206Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024