REDEFINING THE BEAT: ADAPTATION AND ANALYSIS OF JOHN CLELLON HOLMES’S NOVEL GO

Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Myhill, Nova

Keywords

Holmes, John Clellon, roman à clef Go, Beat Literature, Post-War, United States

Area of Concentration

English

Abstract

Published in 1952, John Clellon Holmes’s roman à clef Go offers the first portrayal of the Beat Generation. This thesis seeks to place critical focus on Holmes’s writing and expand upon the Beats through a theatrical adaptation of the novel. An application of practical and theoretical research situates Go and other Beat literature in late 1940s and early 1950s postwar American society. The first chapter contextualizes Beat literature through a critical analysis of Allen Ginsberg’s 1955 poem “Howl” and Jack Kerouac’s 1957 autobiographical fiction On the Road. Chapter two consists of an original, three-act adaptation of Go, which includes a guide that traces characters back to their Beat counterparts. The third and final chapter provides an overview of the methods used to adapt Go. The three appendices that follow contain an original pseudepigraphic story that is referenced in the adaptation, an interview with Suzan Averitt, the 1986 adapter of Go, and Boston-based Writer’s Infusion reviewers’ critiques of the script.

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