Jennie Skerl and Robin Lydenberg have selected twenty-five critical essays on Burroughs that reflect the historical reception of his work, both positive and negative, decade by decade, and that represent the best essays written about him.The essays cover Burroughs major novelsincluding the cut-up and new trilogiesthe censorship issue, and his work in film and painting. The chronological organization brings into critical focus the shift from moral questions raised by the novels content, through examinations of Burroughs relationship to humanism and modernism, and finally to more focused literary and linguistic issues. In their introduction, the editors survey the progress of Burroughs critical reception and examine the reasons for the varied and intense responses to the work and the theoretical assumptions behind those responses.The reviewers include prominent figures such as Mary McCarthy and Marshall McLuhan as well as major academic critics such as Cary Nelson, Tony Tanner, and Ihab Hassan."
- ISBN10 0809315866
- ISBN13 9780809315864
- Publish Date 28 February 1991
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 1 November 2008
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Southern Illinois University Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 280
- Language English