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Literature Curriculum
Project Syllabi
Kerouac's Road
Suggested Level for teaching students: Master’s of Fine Art and high level BA students
Naropa University
Course Description
In this online class, we examine selected, primary texts of Kerouac’s canon (what he called "The Vanity of Duluoz"), as well as his first novel, plus primary critical and personal biographies and oral history. His letters and journals are also included. Through these varied filters we come to a better understanding of his compositional techniques, spiritual and emotional make-up, and ultimately Kerouac’s place in the context of his time and in the gallery of American letters. We probe beyond the myth of the namesake of the Kerouac School, until he reveals himself through his multi-dimensional life and work.
Textbook(s)
We will read three primary texts that comprise what Kerouac referred to as "The Vanity of Duluoz", the set of books that tell the saga of his life from chidhood onward. There are: "On the Road", "Visions of Cody", "Desolation Angels." We will also read his first novel, "The Town and the City". We'll read "The Windblown World", the first edition of Kerouac's journals, published in 2004; Volume Two of his Letters; and one personal biography, "Kerouac" by Ann Charters, as well as a critical biography, "Memory Babe" by Gerald Nicosa. In addition, you will select one other work on your own.
Course Objectives
So it's a lot of reading. But that's the point. Some of the texts might appear daunting but the key will be for you to break them into manageable components. For instance, if you are assigned eighteen chapters to read in a week, make sure you're addressing that task at the rate of (say) three chapters a day. It will all go quickly, and you might look upon it as belonging to a really cool book club. Time management is perhaps the most vital aspect of success in the online medium.
Threaded Discussion
Preconceptions
This is where we introduce the element of Threaded Discussion. We'll be using this feature each week, responding to the lectures, readings, pieces of writing and whatever else comes up during the course of the course. It takes just a little getting used to. The Thread will unfold each week. I suggest you check in at least twice. That is, read the postings and have something in the form of a question or a response.
Also, if you have any suggestions for interesting links, this is a great place to let us know about them. You surely noticed that on this Unit One page,I listed Kerouac's Rules for Spontaneous Prose. I'll find and incorporate an element like that for each Unit, for you to read, ponder and perhaps respond to in the Threaded Discussions.
1: Kerouac the Life, Part One
- Jack Kerouac's Rules of Spontaneous Prose
- Kerouac the Life, Part One - Assignments
Read the first eighteen chapters of Ann Charters' "Kerouac". Listen to her lecture delivered during Naropa's amazing Kerouac Conference that took place at our Summer Writing Program in 1982. I suggest you take the time to hear it in one sitting.
As the semester unfolds, you will see what an incredible resource this is for "Kerouac's Road", to have material delivered by those who knew and worked with him firsthand.
Kerouac the Life, Part One – Lecture
Click here:
On the road: The Jack Kerouac conference, Ann Charters workshop, July, 1982
Charters, Ann
First workshop of the Jack Kerouac conference, sponsored by the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Anne Charters (biographer and Kerouac Scholar) tells how Kerouac's books have influenced her and a generation. She goes into detail about his style and the influence he had on her as well as her works. Her main focus is on Kerouac's book On The Road and how the book should be seen as one of the most important American novels.
- Threaded Discussion
- Preconceptions
What I'd like each of you to do is introduce yourself. Who you are. Where you are. And also, what you know or think about Kerouac. Maybe two things. Do you know him as a writer or merely an image? There's no right or wrong answer. Besides what writing we submit, this is the place where we will truly get to know each other.
2: Kerouac the Life, Part Two
http://www.pbase.com/pzo/beat_tour
Kerouac the Life, Part Two - Assignments
Finish "Kerouac" by Ann Charters (from Chapter Nineteen).
Listen to Sam Charters on Kerouac and Jazz (find in Lecture feature).
Participate in Threaded Discussion (go there for specific instructions).
Take at least fifteen and no more than twenty minutes this week-end and sketch something, employing Kerouac's method of visual, spontaneous composition. Post the results in Document Sharing sometime before eleven p.m. Sunday, USA Rocky Mountain Time.
Kerouac the Life, Part Two - Lecture
Click Here:
On the road: The Jack Kerouac conference, Sam Charters lecture, Jack and jazz, July, 1982.
Sam Charters lecture on Jack Kerouac and jazz at the Jack Kerouac conference, sponsored by the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The lecture includes discussions on jazz of the Beat generation, be-bop, Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and a recording of Kerouac and Steve Allen reading "Mexico City blues."
- Threaded Discussion
- Impressions
Now that we've read more about Kerouac, the man, let's continue sharing our responses, observations and questions.
After each of us has posted our sketches in Document Sharing, feel free to respond to the work. Note, however, that this is a suggestion and by no means is a response mandatory. If you choose to simply read and enjoy them, do that.
3: Rehearsals for “On the Road”
The Art of Fiction No. 41
Interviewed by Ted Berrigan
Issue 43, Summer 1968
- Rehearsals for “On the Road” - Assignments
- Read Section Two, the On the Road part, of The Windblown World.
Take one of your days this week and create a journal entry or set of entries for that day. Long or short, it doesn't matter. Inspired by Kerouac's method, but make it truly your own. In other words, no pastiche, we want to see what one of your life at present is truly like. Post it (in Doc Sharing) before eleven p.m. (USA Rocky Mountain Time) Sunday.
4: Kerouac’s Virtuoso Performance
Jack Kerouac: Report of Medical Survey (a pdf file)
Kerouac’s Virtuoso Performance - Assignments Read "On the Road"
As you experience the narrative, take notes either in the margins of your book or in your notebook. Don't be overly concerned with it yet, but these notes should ultimately be incorporated into your first formal paper.
While we will be focused on this book for the next two units, I suggest reading OTR as swiftly as possible. It's a rapid text, move along with it.
- Neal Cassady in Close-up, Part One (Sep 21 - Sep 27)
- Neal Cassady in Close-up, Part One - Assignments
In most ways, "On the Road" and "Visions of Cody" are companion pieces. Finish OTR as soon as you can, then jump into "Visions".
Our first major paper should be posted in Doc Sharing before the opening of Unit Eight. Let's say Tuesday, October 11 by 11 pm US RMT. It should be double spaced, twelve point font, ten (printed out) pages in length. It can be about any topic inspired by this first set of readings (and lectures): the bio, the notebooks, the Charters (Ann & Sam) and Ginsberg lectures, OTR or Visions.
I suggest that the title be something general followed by a colon which anounces a specific direction of inquiry. For instance: "Media Blues: How Fame Destroyed Jack Kerouac". My suggestion would be to begin developing this work as soon as possible, don't leave it till the last day.
6: Neal Cassady in Close-up, Part Two
Click here for Neal Cassady webpage at The Beat Page
Neal Cassady in Close-up, Part Two - Assignments
Let's do an exercise this week. Choose someone in your life (past or present), and put them in a location. Just a paragraph. Write in present tense. Describe them as they appear in that moment. Follow this with a monologue so that we get a sense of their spirit. This should not be an imitation of how Kerouac portrayed Cassady/Cassady, but an authentic voice coming through. These two elements together should be at least one page, no more than two. Post it in Document Sharing before Sunday at 5 pm US RMT.
7: Kerouac’s Routine, Part One
Jack Kerouac spent 63 days during the summer of 1956 as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak, in North Cascades National Park.
Kerouac’s Routine, Part One - Assignments
Read "Desolation Angels". We'll be on it for two weeks, but with the paper coming up, I'd suggest finishing as soon as you can.
Continue working on your ten page paper, due October 11. You should (at least) write it, re-write it and polish it before posting in Doc Sharing.
Kerouac’s Routine, Part One - Lecture
William S. Burroughs workshop, Jack Kerouac Conference - Part 1 - Burroughs, William S.
First half of a workshop with William S. Burroughs comparing his works to those of Jack Kerouac, discussing their writing techniques. Burroughs provides biographical information on where the two met and their relationship. He also discusses what it means to be a writer and how many people are not writers even though they claim to be and have published work. Burroughs responds to questions about his relationship with Kerouac, dreams, and his own literary influences...
8: Kerouac’s Routine, Part Two
Click here for William S. Burroughs webpage at The Beat Page
Kerouac’s Routine, Part Two – Lecture
Click Here: William S. Burroughs workshop, Jack Kerouac Conference - Part 2 -
Burroughs, William S.
Second half of a workshop with William S. Burroughs comparing his works to those of Jack Kerouac, discussing their writing techniques. Burroughs provides biographical information on where the two met and their relationship. He also discusses what it means to be a writer and how many people are not writers even though they claim to be and have published work. Burroughs responds to questions about his relationship with Kerouac, dreams, and his own literary influences...
Unit 9: Kerouac in Exile (Oct 19 - Oct 25)
Where did these sounds come from? (an external weblink)
Unit 9: Kerouac in Exile - Assignments
The lecture this week is one I gave this past Summer at The Summer Writing Program. I apologize if some of it is a bit rushed, but I only had a limited window of time in which to deliver it. I encourage you to listen in one sitting, then pose any questions or responses in the Threaded Discussion. I sincerely hope you will respond. You might enjoy a couple of cameo appearnaces from Workshop Members during the Q & A.
Having gotten the paper under our belts, let's also (continue to) discuss "Desolation Angels". Our second formal paper will be at the end of class and will employ the same approach as the first: any topic or topics containing the readings we're doing from here on out (including "Desolation Angles").
Unit 10: Kerouac Keeps Score
Unit 10: Kerouac Keeps Score – Assignments
Read The Town and the City Worklogs (pages 3 through 130), from "Thew Windblown World". Try to read them as swiftly as possible.
Also read the first part of "The Town and the City". We won't begin discussing this text until next week but you should have that much read by then.
Listen to this week's lecture and respond in Threaded Discussion.
*** Kerouac Keeps Score - Lecture
Allen Ginsberg and Ann Charters class on Jack Kerouac and Russian Futurists, July, 1981. http://www.archive.org/details/Allen_Ginsberg_and_Ann_Charters_class_on_81P099
- Charters, Ann; Ginsberg, Allen
Allen Ginsberg and Ann Charters class on Jack Kerouac and Russian Futurists, discussing Kerouac's method of revision, his five-cent notebooks, his book Old Angel Midnight, methods of composition, his 1956-1959 notebooks, James Joyce's Molly Bloom and Finnegan's Wake, Buddhist Shakespearean plays, Kerouac's On the Road scroll, Visions of Cody and Dharma Bums, and a short discussion of the Russian Futurists.
*** Kerouac the Writer, Part One – Lecture
Allen Ginsberg class on vividness and close observation in writing - Part 1 - http://www.archive.org/details/naropa_allen_ginsberg_class_on3
Ginsberg, Allen
First half of a class with Allen Ginsberg discussing vividness and close observation in writing, particularly the writers who do it, including Walt Whitman, haiku, Jack Kerouac, Reznikoff, Imagists and William Carlos Williams. Ends with Ginsberg reading a poem that was a partial model for "Howl."(Continues on 86p306B.)
Professor:
Junior Burke won an Essay Award from New Millennium Writing, one of six writers cited nationally. His novel, 'Something Gorgeous' was released in 2005 by Fafalla, McMillan & Parrish. In 2004, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art presented 'Someone Else's Dream', a cycle of his songs. He is founder and Editorial Director of the electronic magazine of MFA Creative Writing program: not enough night.
Course outline credited to Junior Burke
Naropa University
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