198,683 research outputs found
The yagé aesthetic of William Burroughs: the publication and development of his work 1953-1965
No full textPhDMy concern in this thesis is to show that a reconstruction of the publishing history of
the work of William Burroughs offers a new, critical perspective on his experiments
with psychoactive substances and their connection to his developing practice.
I begin with an exploration of the publication of The Yage Letters (1963) and Naked
Lunch (1959), and reveal how the complexities of their publishing histories shaped
their critical reception. I examine the legal defence of Naked Lunch as it developed
from the Big Table Post Office hearing through to the 1965 Boston trial and
demonstrate the degree to which censorship came to define the published text. The
legal defence of Naked Lunch, as it was incorporated into the Grove publication,
emphasised the issue of opiate addiction. The way in which Burroughs’ 1953 letters to
Allen Ginsberg were reworked as The Yage Letters did much to conceal the
significance of yagé for Burroughs’ later work. Together, these publishing histories
have obscured the relationship between his use of psychoactive substances and his
evolving aesthetic.
At the same time many of Burroughs’ most experimental - and important - works
appeared only in small, ephemeral magazines. His adoption of avant-garde strategies
such as collaboration and collage and his dedication to multimedia experimentation
with the non-chemical alteration of consciousness made conventional book
publication problematic or unsuitable. These experiments in aesthetic production, I
argue, are central to our understanding of Burroughs. His main published writings
must be re-evaluated as one element in this collage of multimedia activities.
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I argue that Burroughs’ experiences with yagé, mescaline and dimethyltryptamine
exerted an influence on his shift to experimentalism in the early 1960s, which sought
to replicate the experience of these altered states of consciousness. That this is so is
evident from a study of two collections of correspondence - Burroughs’ letters to
Ginsberg held at Columbia University Library and his letters to Brion Gysin in the
William S. Burroughs Papers held at the New York Public Library. My reading of
these letters forms an important component of my argument, working to reveal what
the conventional ‘published’ Burroughs serves to conceal.Arts and Humanities research Board.
Queen Mary University of London English Department
funding naked Lunch @ 50 conference in Pari
Technologies, texts and subjects: William S. Burroughs and post-humanism
No full textThis thesis addresses the twin questions of technology and the human, ultimately questioning the validity of either category and pointing toward their dissolution in transhumanism. Starting with a discussion of the question of technology in organization studies, the thesis takes issue with the way in which discussion has focused on the technology- object pole of a dualism at the neglect of the human subject that occupies the opposing pole. Following a methodological call for symmetry the thesis reconsiders the question of technology in light of its human other and visa versa. Working with the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche and Deleuze and Guattari, the thesis suggests that there is a problem with maintaining a distinct conception of the human, separated a priori from questions of technology and language. In seeking to avoid an essentialism either of the (technological) object, or the (human) subject, the thesis reconsiders the question of the human, language and technics through an examination of the work of William S. Burroughs. Combining Burroughs' ideas with those of Deleuze and Guattari, a conception of the 'transhuman' is developed which, in opposition to a transcendental humanism, articulates the immanent implication of technology and language in the production of subjectivity, and points to the more radical potentials of new technology in figuring alternative modes of subjectivization and social organization
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