William Burroughs, The Naked Lunch

Timothy S. Murphy (Oklahoma State University)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1959

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)
Metafiction
Novel

Resources

Naked Lunch is William S. Burroughs' most famous and influential experimental novel, originally published in Paris in 1959 but not available until 1962 in the USA and 1964 in the UK due to publishers' fears of obscenity prosecution. Director David Cronenberg made a film based very loosely on it in 1991, and a restored and corrected edition of the novel has been announced for publication in 2002. Jack Kerouac, who helped Allen Ginsberg edit the book into shape, provided the title, which Burroughs interpreted to mean “a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.” This perspective highlights the book's stated intention of revealing the many hidden forms of manipulation, from police surveillance to the …

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712 words

Citation: Murphy, Timothy S.. "The Naked Lunch". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=121, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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