AN EXAMINATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF JAZZ AND BLUES IN JACK KEROUAC'S MEXICO CITY BLUES.

BY: RODERICK A. WARNER

INTRODUCTION:

Chapter One will examine the general influence of jazz and blues on Jack Kerouac's long poem Mexico City Blues.(1.) Chapter Two will consider the specific vocal impact of jazz and blues, and his attempt to capture sound by textual notation - what I have described as 'the vocalised text.'. Chapter Three will examine the subject of improvisation, linking Charlie Parker's work to Kerouac's specific poetic techniques. Chapter Four will extend the argument by stating that the paradigm of jazz/blues, centering on the figure of Charlie Parker (2.) in the last choruses of the poem, affords Kerouac a resolution to the religious tensions between Buddhism and his residual Catholicism.

Go to Chapter One