Jack Kerouac, Satori in Paris

R. J. Ellis (University of Birmingham)

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 1966

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Prose Fiction Narrative

Resources

Satori in Paris is a garrulous first-person account of a brief visit to France. It opens by proposing that the visit precipitated a “satori” and proposes a series of possible moments when this may have occurred (the satori in question is a Zen satori – an illumination or enlightenment in one's state of consciousness). But the various incidents on his French travels identified by the first person narrator as perhaps providing the “‘sudden illumination'” or “‘sudden awakening'” (7) seem relatively insignificant. Instead they constitute lightweight anecdotes, despite the title's sonorous promise of enlightenment.

Satori in Paris therefore becomes a rather inconclusive account of the …

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639 words

Citation: Ellis, R. J.. "Satori in Paris". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 April 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21642, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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