Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Alan Kennedy (Carnegie Mellon University)

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 1957

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)
Novel

Resources

On the Road is most often described as the classic text of the ‘beat’ generation, even if it isn’t always clear who or what the ‘beat’ generation was, or is. Despite the continuing fame of Kerouac's novel, these days it is perhaps less read than it is referenced, and some readers report disappointment when they finally do read the book. This disappointment is perhaps inevitable given that this is a book often approached with certain expectations on the part of the reader, usually generated by cultural assumptions about 'beatness' and the state of being 'on the road', expectations which are not always fulfilled and not usually justified.

Many of these expectations derive from the character of Dean Moriarty. B…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2396 words

Citation: Kennedy, Alan. "On the Road". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 August 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3057, accessed 28 November 2024.]

Save this article