On the Road

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Slide 1: Slide
EngelsMiddelbare schoolvwoLeerjaar 5

This lesson contains 28 slides, with interactive quizzes, text slides and 5 videos.

time-iconLesson duration is: 30 min

Items in this lesson

Slide 1 - Slide

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)

Slide 2 - Slide

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

Slide 3 - Mind map

Slide 4 - Video

Slide 5 - Video

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

Slide 6 - Slide

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

Slide 7 - Open question

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. 

Slide 8 - Slide

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

Slide 9 - Slide

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

Slide 10 - Slide

Slide 11 - Slide

Slide 12 - Video

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. 

Slide 13 - Slide

Slide 14 - Video

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

Slide 15 - Slide

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.

Slide 16 - Slide

Go 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!

Slide 17 - Slide

What is the difference between 'setting' and 'atmosphere'?

Slide 18 - Open question

What is the difference between a 'theme' and a 'motif'

Slide 19 - Open question

Slide 20 - Slide

Write down one powerful exclamation

Slide 21 - Open question

Write down at least one powerful verb

Slide 22 - Open question

Write down one powerful adjective

Slide 23 - Open question

What is the effect of these words on you, the reader?

Slide 24 - Open question

Slide 25 - Video

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

Slide 26 - Open question

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. 

Slide 27 - Slide

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

Slide 28 - Slide