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    "Blessed Are the Pure of Heart." Variations on Magical Realism in the Beat Generation: Pathways to Critique and Resistance

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    Issue Date
    2009-01-01
    Author
    Lagaron, Elizabeth Marie
    Publisher
    University of Kansas
    Format
    200 pages
    Type
    Dissertation
    Degree Level
    Ph.D.
    Discipline
    English
    Rights
    This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
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    Abstract
    This dissertation explores literary depictions of characters experiencing self discovery as they are presented by three of the writers of the Beat Generation: Jack Kerouac, Elise Cowen, and Diane di Prima. Each of the texts--Dr. Sax, Loba, and Cowen's poetry-- demonstrates how disempowered or oppressed characters evolve, learn to define themselves, and discover a truer sense of self during times of war, struggle, conflict or difficulty. The types of oppression the protagonists and speakers face in these texts is wide-ranging and diverse, but magical realism, and variations on the literary themes presented in magical realism, becomes for these writers a weapon their characters employ for critique and for self preservation against the existing social order. Magical elements allow these characters to reflect their realities and--at best--resist those realities. Pan's Labyrinth is presented here as a model for these specific themes -magic as a tool that can empower the disempowered--and as a lens through which the other texts are read and understood.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5252
    Collections
    • Dissertations [3958]
    • English Dissertations and Theses [294]

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    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
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    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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