To continue the notion of postmodernist and modernist work I would like to make a post on one of my most admired writers William S. Burroughs with emphasis on his famous trilogy: City of Red Nights, The Place of Dead Roads and Western Lands. With these books the writer reinvents the cult genres: western, science fiction, detective and a lesser degree of gangster and spy stories to create a deadly concoction. Combining experimental textual techniques, cinematic and literal tropes, science fictional considerations and array of mythological and cultural references the author pushes his work out of the limits of conventional genres and styles. Although there are no illusions of the skeptic views Burroughs has of the overpowering political system, which stems in the very core of the society he lives in, his work is engulfed in the revolutionary idealism and plans for worldwide changes. No wonder the writer has been often compared as Moses for the No Wave and Punk Movement that has been emerging in New York at that time. What is more, his work has been repeatedly put on trial for censorship because of his the extremely liberal views of homosexuality and drug use. Nevertheless, the emphasis in his work remains on the desperate seek for revolutionary liberation and reform and the renunciation of the illusionary cultural and conservative values, criticizing our very basic imposed societal and physical limitations.
Bibliography:
- Michael J. P (2011) "The Master Film is a Western : The Mythology of the American West in the Cities of the Red Night Trilogy", European journal of American studies [Online], document 3, Online since 03 November 2011, connection on 26 April 2012. URL : http://ejas.revues.org/9412
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