Rebel and Freedom. The Importance of Jazz Music in Jack Kerouac's Novel "On the Road" (1957)

Seminar paper from the year 2024 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 3,0, http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Institut für Anglistik), course: Interdisciplinary Perspectives: Music in American Literature, language: English, abstract: In this term paper, the importance of jazz music for the Beats is examined on the example of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road". For this purpose, jazz is examined as a thematic element of the novel, as well as its stylistic influences on the text. This term paper provides both historical contexts and literary analyses, which are structured as follows. After portraying the prevailing circumstances of the 1950s in the USA, there will be a short overview of the emergence of the Beat Generation as well as their aims and works. After that, a short historical context of jazz music is given. To better understand the context of his novel, Kerouac's life and his path into the Beat Generation are examined. This is followed by a brief introduction to his novel "On The Road", followed by an analysis of specific passages that highlight the importance of jazz to his narration. Then, literary peculiarities are discussed, e.g. stylistic parallels between musical improvisation in jazz music and Kerouac's writing style. Finally, there will be a summary of the main arguments regarding the meaning of jazz for the Beat Generation on the example of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road".