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Shift Linguals traces a history of the cut-up method, the experimental writing practice discovered by Brion Gysin and made famous by Beat author William S. Burroughs. From the groundbreaking works of Dada and Surrealism that paved the way for Burroughs’ breakthrough, through the countercultural explosion of the 1960's, Shift Linguals explores the evolution of the cut-ups within the theoretical frameworks of postmodernism and the avant-garde to arrive at the present and the digital age. Some 50 years on from the first ‘discovery’ of the cut-ups in 1959, it is only now that we are truly able to observe the method’s impact, not only on literature, but on music and culture in a broader sense. The result of over nine years of research, this study represents the first sustained and detailed analysis of the cut-ups as a narrative form. With explorations of the works of Burroughs, Gysin, Kathy Acker, and John Giorno, it also contains the first critical writing on the works of Claude Pélieu and Carl Weissner in English, as well as the first in-depth discussion of the writing of Stewart Home to date.

Experimental fiction --- Postmodernism (Literature) --- Experimental fiction. --- Literary movements --- Literature, Modern --- Modernism (Literature) --- Post-postmodernism (Literature) --- Avant-garde fiction --- Fiction --- Literature, Experimental --- History and criticism. --- Burroughs, William S., --- Baroouz, Ouiliam, --- Berrouz, Uilʹi͡am, --- Burroughs, William, --- Lee, William, --- Lee, Willy, --- Burroughs, William S. --- Burroughs, William --- Lee, Willy --- Lee, William --- Baroouz, Ouiliam --- Berrouz, Uilʹi︠a︡m --- Criticism and interpretation.

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William S. Burroughs is one of the twentieth century's most visible, controversial, and baffling literary figures. In the first comprehensive study of the writer, Timothy S. Murphy places Burroughs in the company of the most significant intellectual minds of our time. In doing so, he gives us an immensely readable and convincing account of a man whose achievements continue to have a major influence on American art and culture. Murphy draws on the work of such philosophers as Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Theodor Adorno, and Jean-Paul Sartre, and also investigates the historical contexts from which Burroughs's writings arose.From the paranoid isolationism of the Cold War through the countercultural activism of the sixties to the resurgence of corporate and state control in the eighties, Burroughs's novels, films, and music hold a mirror to the American psyche. Murphy coins the term "amodernism" as a way to describe Burroughs's contested relationship to the canon while acknowledging the writer's explicit desire for a destruction of such systems of classification. Despite the popular mythology that surrounds Burroughs, his work has been largely excluded from the academy of American letters. Finally here is a book that presents a solid portrait of a major artistic innovator, a writer who combines aesthetics and politics and who can perform as anthropologist, social goad, or media icon, all with consummate skill.

Burroughs, William S. --- American Literature --- English --- Languages & Literatures --- Burroughs, William Seward --- Criticism and interpretation --- Burroughs, William S., --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Burroughs, William --- Lee, Willy --- Lee, William --- Baroouz, Ouiliam --- Berrouz, Uilʹi︠a︡m

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Burroughs, William S. --- Beat generation --- Burroughs, William S., --- Criticism and interpretation --- Beatniks --- Beats --- American literature --- Bohemianism --- -Criticism and interpretation --- Persons --- Burroughs, William, --- Lee, Willy, --- Lee, William, --- Baroouz, Ouiliam, --- Berrouz, Uilʹi︠a︡m, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Beats (Persons) --- Burroughs, William Seward --- Burroughs, William --- Lee, Willy --- Lee, William --- Baroouz, Ouiliam --- Berrouz, Uilʹi︠a︡m --- Burroughs, William S., - 1914-1997 - Criticism and interpretation --- Burroughs (william s.) --- Burroughs, William S., - 1914-1997

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Beat literature --- Homosexuality and literature --- Sexual orientation in literature. --- Drug addiction in literature. --- American Literature --- English --- Languages & Literatures --- Narcotic habit in literature --- Literature --- History and criticism. --- History --- Burroughs, William S., --- Burroughs, William S. --- Burroughs, William --- Lee, Willy --- Lee, William --- Baroouz, Ouiliam --- Berrouz, Uilʹi︠a︡m --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Beat generation in literature.

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Foster provides a survey of the four major Beat writers: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Gregory Corso. These writers were closely allied from the beginning of their careers and shared a particular vision of America, one which in turn defined much of their most celebrated work. They wrote in opposition to the materialistic, conformist culture they saw developing in postwar America, seeking through their fiction and poetry a way out of that world. Literature, as Foster demonstrates, allowed both writer and reader to see things as they were while, at the same time, providing an entry into transcendent realities. The best-known Beat works, On the Road, "Howl," and Naked Lunch, responded directly to social and political conditions at mid-century while indicating ways to escape them. Although the Beats were widely seen as social revolutionaries by journalists, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Corso were always predominantly writers. As the United States moved away from the contained, conservative temperament of the postwar period, the Beats became celebrities, and, as such, were dependent for their reputations on newspapers, magazines, and television. Their fame assured that they would be read, yet they were perhaps better known for their values and their personalities than for their books. Confusing the writer with the subject of On the Road, Kerouac's early followers were surprised to find that he did not even like to drive. They failed to see that his real revolution had to do with language. Foster focuses on the problems of language and aesthetics that the Beats confronted and suggests to the reader the great range of influence their work has had on subsequent writers.

Beat literature --- Beats (Persons) --- American literature --- American Literature --- English --- Languages & Literatures --- Beat generation --- Beatniks --- Persons --- Bohemianism --- Literature --- History and criticism. --- History and criticism --- Kerouac, Jack, --- Burroughs, William S., --- Ginsberg, Allen, --- Ginzberg, Alen, --- Gīnasabārga, Ayālena, --- Ginsberg, Irwin Allen, --- גינזברג, אלן --- Burroughs, William S. --- Burroughs, William --- Lee, Willy --- Lee, William --- Baroouz, Ouiliam --- Berrouz, Uilʹi︠a︡m --- Kerouac, Jack --- Kerouac, John --- Kérouac, Jean Louis Lebris de --- Chia-lo-kʻo, Chieh-kʻo --- Keruak, Dz︠h︡ek --- Ḳeruʼaḳ, G'eḳ --- קרואק, ג׳ק, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- United States --- Intellectual life --- 20th century