Postmodern American Literature Flashcards
How is On the Road written that is different from earlier, more traditional novels? What kind of effect does this have on traditional plot?
On the Road is different from other novels because it is more about the style of the novel (the text is written rhythmically, there is an almost music-like component to it, Kerouac believed the length of a sentence should reflect one exhale). It was written in spontaneous prose, which reflects the Beats movement focus on the process of writing rather than the content and end result. In this regard, they were similar to the stream of consciousness but instead of focusing on the uninterrupted internal monologue they focused on the process of creating it. It is the stream of altered consciousness, because Beatniks would use drugs to enhance their experience and delve deeper into themselves.
Does the form help to express the themes of the novel in On the Road?
The form, with its jazz like rhythms connects to the idea of jazz and its connection with freedom and doing many things at once; jazz plays many things at once and still exists in harmony. The structure (up, up, climax, down) also mimics a sexual act, complementary to the homoerotic undertones of the novel.
What is your impression of the main characters in On the Road?
They’re silly and women character’s suck cuz sexism.
Would you consider Sal prejudiced?
Sal is homophobic, racist, sexist and misogynistic.
How would you explain Dean’s obsession with time?
He gots to go, he has to live life to the fullest, he wants to do everything all at once
What is the role of jazz in the novel On the Road?
Jazz=freedom, it is getting high without using drugs and being in a kind of trance, the acomplishment you feel when you finish an artistic work, the ability to do everything at once,
Think about the paradox of drug-induced ‘‘ragged and ecstatic joy of pure being’’
They needed an external catalyst to experience it, something external, they felt that drugs take you to your ‘pure being’ but is that then really you? The subjective reality was conditioned by something else (inching towards postmodernity)
How would you explain the structural organization of the short story The Babysitter?
Many things at once, multiple realities connected with tv
How many different storylines or scenarios did you discover while reading the story The Babysitter? How are they connected?
3, connected through tv and time place familiarity.
What can you tell about the main protagonist in The Babysitter?
There is none, you aren’t sure who is the main speaker, Coover refuses to identify the focaliser and with this he shows that literature is just a game, it is generating information.
What is the role of television in ‘‘The Babysitter?’’
It is the structural key, it defines everything. When you switch a channel, you switch realities.
What is your opinion of the overall message of the text The Babysitter?
TV is bad, consummerism is bad, the focus of America on sex, violence and tv, …
How does the short story The Babysitter end?
We do not know. It ends and it doesn’t. The Babysitter either has a quiet night or she doesn’t, she is raped or she isn’t, she watches the news or she doesn’t. It’s all possible.
Why, do you think, is the book Neuromancer on the reading list?
Because it is the first cyberpunk novel, which is inching towards true postmodernism.
How would you describe the style of Neuromancer?
It is grimy, it attacks you with neologisms, you’re plunged into an unfamiliar world and these neologisms have no symbolic counterparts and produce hyperreal notions. Technology is used for description of natural phenomena.
