On road
Unterwegs (original title On the Road ) is a novel by the American writer Jack Kerouac , which was published in 1957. The book is considered the manifesto of the so-called Beatniks and one of the most important texts of the Beat Generation .
content
The content of the novel can be characterized by the phrase "Sex, Drugs 'n' Jazz". The two main characters, Dean Moriarty and the narrator Sal Paradise, embark on various journeys through the USA and Mexico to indulge in intoxication , women and jazz - although as hipsters they are not mainstream jazz, but the new, harder bebop Listen.
The two of them hitchhike , jump on freight trains , travel in greyhound buses, on flatbed trucks or in stolen cars across the North American continent and back, from New York City , via Chicago , Denver , California to New Orleans and finally to Mexico. Of particular interest are the deviations from the norm that became evident in American society in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the attitude towards life of adolescent outsiders and their perspective of observing the rest of society.
Joyce Johnson , with whom Kerouac entered into a relationship between 1957 and 1958, the basic scheme of the novel reminded at the time of Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . Sal can be equated with Twain's character Tom Sawyer , as both live well protected with their middle-class aunts. Dean would therefore be an equivalent to Huck Finn , especially since both are outlaws who make a big impression on a middle-class boy and go on trips together. Meanwhile, the raft has been replaced by more modern vehicles.
The novel has strong autobiographical traits, many of the characters appearing can be identified with people in Kerouac's life. Shortly before his death, Kerouac planned a complete edition of his work, on the cover of which the real people who corresponded to his characters should be named. The character Dean Moriarty in On the Move corresponds to Neal Cassady , Carlo Marx is Allen Ginsberg , Old Bull Lee is William S. Burroughs , Tom Saybrook is John Clellon Holmes , Elmo Hassel is Herbert Huncke , the narrator Sal Paradise corresponds to Kerouac himself. However, this complete edition was no longer realized during his lifetime. It wasn't until 2007 that the original scroll with the real names was published. A German translation of the original version by Ulrich Blumenbach was published in 2010.
meaning
The special meaning of this book in Kerouac's work lies in the clear and calm language of its narrator and his characters. This made the book accessible to a wider audience than other very complicated and hard- drugged works by Kerouac such as be-bop, bars and white powder ( The Subterraneans , 1958). The novel reflects Kerouac's conviction that American civilization is atrophying the creative (from the beatnik point of view, elemental-animal, but also original-spiritual) human powers. The rejection of society is, as Ursula Brumm explains in her interpretation of the novel, an act of "artistic liberation". It is about “realizing one's own extra-social lifestyle, with one's own rhythm, one's own ideals and values, all of which are the opposite of those of the existing society”.
Effect on other artists
On the way was one of the role models for the cult film Easy Rider (1969) by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper .
With their 1982 album Beat, the progressive rock band King Crimson refers to the beat generation in general and in the song Neal and Jack and Me specifically to Unterwegs .
The Munich band Sportfreunde Stiller wrote a song of the same name inspired by Unterwegs . It appeared in 1998 on the EP Thonträger . At the end of the song A Compliment on their album Die Gute Seiten you can hear the following excerpt from the audio book of the English original: “We jumped into the warm, mad night hearing the wild tenor man across the way blowing his horn going ih-ja, ih- Yes. Hands clapping to the beat, folks yelling: 'Go, go, go!' " . Then comes the song Sportbeat , u. a. an allusion to the beat generation .
The Cologne band BAP wrote the song Wat for e Booch as a homage to Unterwegs . . Released on the 2008 album Radio Pandora .
The American metal band Mudvayne refers to the work of Jack Kerouac in their song On the Move .
The Austrian band STS released the song Unterwegs on the album on tour in 1988 , which touches on the book's philosophy of life (quote from the song: “Kerouac would have been happy with you” ).
In the US series Lost , several references to the book appear: While in the third season (episode 15) the character "Sawyer" reads the book, the character "Ben" in the fourth season (episode 09) has the code name "Dean Moriarty ”.
The French band Moriarty named themselves after the character of "Dean Moriarty".
Charles Plymell's book The Last of the Moccasins , where he tells the wild, short life of his sister, is based on the novel.
The Australian band The Go-Betweens wrote the song The house that Jack Kerouac built with the lyrics “On the road” as a conclusion.
In the series The Wizard of Waverly Place , the role of Daniel Samonas is called "Dean Moriarty".
The writer TC Boyle wrote a short story called Beat (published in Germany in 1999 in the book Fleischeslust , original title: Without a Hero , 1994 Viking, New York), in which he imitates and ironically exaggerated the style of Jack Kerouac. In terms of content, he alludes heavily to Kerouac's work. Overall, Beat can be understood both as a tongue-in-cheek homage and as a criticism of the enormous influence of on the go .
Clutching at Straws (1987), the fourth studio album by the British rock and prog rock formation Marillion, is almost entirely inspired by Kerouac's life and work. For example, the Torch Song quotes almost literally from the first pages of the classic On The Road.
filming
In 2012 the film version of Unterwegs was released . The film was released in Germany under the title On the Road and in America under the original title On the Road . Walter Salles is directing the screenplay by José Rivera . The main role of Dean Moriarty is played by Garrett Hedlund , his wife Marylou is played by Kristen Stewart . Sam Riley plays Sal Paradise , Kirsten Dunst plays Camille and Carlo Marx is played by Tom Sturridge .
literature
Text editions (German translation)
- On road. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1959
- On road. Translated from the English by Thomas Lindquist (new translation). Rowohlt, Reinbek 2010 ISBN 978-3-499-22225-2
- On the Road: The original version. Translated by Ulrich Blumenbach . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2010 ISBN 978-3-498-03550-1
Text output (original)
- On the Road 1957
- On the Road: The Original Scroll. Viking Penguin, New York 2007 ISBN 978-0-670-06355-0
Secondary literature
- Jara Rossenbach: The journey as an identity-building impulse in the Québec novel. Shaker, Aachen 2018 (Diss. Phil. TH Aachen ): on Unterwegs p. 147f. and passim
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ The Smithsonian Institute: Remembering Jack Kerouac by Joyce Johnson, September 2007 (accessed May 31, 2014)
- ^ Ann Charters: Introduction , in Kerouac: On the Road , London (1991), pp. XXVIII
- ↑ On this interpretation, cf. Ursula Brumm: The Critique of the "American Way of Life" in Contemporary American Novels . In: Franz H. Link (Ed.): America · Vision and Reality, contributions to German research on American literary history. Athenäum Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. et al. 1968, pp. 456-469, here p. 463f.
- ↑ Kirsten Dunst plays in On the Road ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
