On the Road

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Literature

• Each chapter we do will involve an important era in Literature and it's terminology.  

• As well as being tested as part of the chapter, it will come together with literature history and a novel we will deal with togetherto form your Literature mark (20% of your SE)
  

The US in the 1950's
Any images, facts, ideas that spring to mind?

The Beat Generation

• Literary movement
• Group of authors that influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era
• Published and popularised during the 50s
• non-conformity and spontaneous creativity
• Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burough and Jack Kerouac
• Inspired Sixties artists like The Beatles and Bob Dylan
  

Why is this type of movement formed during a period as the 1950s?

The name: Beat Generation

• Kerouac introduced it in 1948 to characterize a perceived underground, anti-conformist youth movement in New York

• connotations: upbeat and beatific (positive image)

• and a musical association: on the beat. 

Central elements of the Beats

• rejection of the standard  narrative values
• making a spiritual quest
• the exploration of American and Eastern religions
• rejection of economic materialism
• explicit portrayals of human condition
• experimentation with psychedelic drugs
• sexual liberation and exploration
• Liberation from censorship

Against the Christian beliefs of the 1950s

The Beats: 

• were openly gay or bisexual 
• writing about interracial love affairs and group sex
•  used drugs: marihuana, morphine, LSD, peyote, ayahuasca
• heavily influenced by Jazz

Jack Kerouac

March 12, 1922- October 21, 1969

On the Road was a huge success and made him a Beat Icon.

With other he become the progenitor(founding father)  of the hippie movement. 

On The Road

• characters based on real life people, like Alan Ginsberg and William Burroughs
•  it's the journey and not the destination that counts
• One of the most quintessentially American novels
• carefree spirits that were always in search of the next big thrill

What's it about?

On the Road, novel by Jack Kerouac, written over the course of three weeks in 1951 and published in 1957.
The free-form book describes a series of frenetic trips across the United States by a number of penniless young people who are in love with life, beauty, jazz, sex, drugs, speed, and mysticism and who have absolute contempt for alarm clocks, timetables, road maps, mortgages, pensions, and all traditional American rewards for industry.

Go to Of Course, Literature, The Magical Mystery Tour

Try these tasks on your laptop :

• Task 1 about matching Kerouac's friends to famous literary characters
• Task 2 - Setting and Atmosphere
• Task 3 - On the Road
• Task 4 - Theme and motif

Finish them before the first lesson after the autumn break!

Why is it so important to these characters and the people they are based on to explore and discover new things?

On The Road

• much of On the Road is inspired by actual events (and adventures) that Kerouac, or a close friend, experienced. 
• The Beats didn’t want to just imagine escapades, they wanted to live them. 
• Manuscript was written on one long scroll of paper. 

Themes

• dissatisfaction
• madness
• sadness
• friendship
• drugs
• sex 
• visions of America
• contrasting regions
• versions of reality