The Making of Amalgams: Sampling the 'Narrative' of Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader

Abstract

This essay argues that the once revolutionary potential of literature defined as “postmodern” has been co-opted by a succession of collections and “Readers,” typified by Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader. A study of Burroughs’ fiction reveals the dialectic between language as a potential site of resistance and the inability of words to ultimately circumvent social control, problematizing the representation of Burroughs’ fictional project in the Word Virus. Through analysis of two novels from his later career, Cities of the Red Night (1981) and The Western Lands (1987), the contradictions inherent in contemporary literature’s propensity to commercialize and market its revisionist canon will be examined in relation to content that criticizes such compartmentalization.