Benjamin J. Heal
ABSTRACT
Despite the predominance of poets, for example Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, John Giorno and Bob Kaufman, among his Beat peers and friends, and frequent references to the influence of poetry on his work through references to the work of Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Saint-Jean Perce and T.S. Eliot, William Burroughs’ primary status as an iconoclast and writer of novels endures. This article considers the poetic features and experimentalism of his work through an examination of his more genre-defying publications, beginning with Naked Lunch (1959) and continuing through the Cut-up trilogy (1961-68). Specifically, it will explore the ways in which Burroughs’ experiments employ radical prose-poetics to critique conventional forms. Burroughs’ direct calls to action with texts such as Minutes to Go (1960) and Electronic Revolution (1970) can be seen to conflate radical poetic practice with political activism. Indeed, Burroughs’ conclusion that “All writing is in fact cut-ups. A collage of words read heard overheard” (Burroughs and Gysin 32), points to a practical conflation of different forms, practices and genres that connect the page with words heard in real-time. The rhythm, cadence, and syntax of Burroughs’ cut-up works demonstrate that they do not employ an entirely aleatory practice, but are carefully arranged, deliberately poetic compositions. This examination of Burroughs’ poetic-prose and experimental practice aims to re-situate his works as examples of radical poetic practice rather than apolitical prose experiments.
KEYWORDS: prose-poetry, poetics, revolution, authorship theory, literary collage, Beat Generation
Benjamin J. Heal, Assistant Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan (benheal@hotmail.com).
DOI: 10.30395/WSR.202512_19(1).0006
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