The Parting of Burroughs and Kerouac:The French Backstory to The First Beat Novel, from Rimbaud to Poetic Realist Cinema

Lane, Veronique (2013) The Parting of Burroughs and Kerouac:The French Backstory to The First Beat Novel, from Rimbaud to Poetic Realist Cinema. Comparative American Studies, 11 (3). pp. 265-279. ISSN 1477-5700

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Abstract

The first so-called beat novel, And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, co-written by Burroughs and Kerouac in 1945 but only published in 2008, has been dismissed as little more than a biographical curiosity. However, a comparative analysis of the text with its unpublished second version—the archival typescript of ‘I Wish I Were You’ composed by Kerouac alone —invites us to reread it from entirely new perspectives. An examination of the crucial role played by allusions to French culture from one version of the text to the other shows how Kerouac emerged from Burroughs’ shadow. In ‘I Wish I Were You’, Kerouac refocuses the story through self-reflexive references to visual works of art, specifically the French poetic realist cinema of the 1930s, and by doing so asserts for the first time his ethic and aesthetic as a writer of ‘bookmovies’.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Comparative American Studies
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200
Subjects:
?? AMERICAN COUNTERCULTUREARTHUR RIMBAUDPOETIC REALISMFRENCH FILMSOCIOLOGY AND POLITICAL SCIENCECULTURAL STUDIESARTS AND HUMANITIES(ALL) ??
ID Code:
88009
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
06 Oct 2017 19:38
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Sep 2023 04:21