Abstract
In her article "Burroughs's Re-Invention of the Byronic Hero" Franca A. Bellarsi discusses George Gordon Byron's (1788-1824) and William S. Burroughs's (1914-1997) texts as masterful examples of irreverence which earned notoriety in their own days. Yet despite the scandalous aura of lawlessness, iconoclastic cynicism, and nomadic elusiveness which surrounds both authors' work, a parallel between them has never been attempted. Bellarsi argues that more than a hundred years after Burroughs's birth, assessing his work implies understanding that his enduring appeal across languages and cultures rests in part on how his writing pushes the transformation of the Byronic myth further in a long chain of adaptations over two centuries. Applying Burroughs's nomadic reading method to his own work shows surprising continuities between him and certain strands within British Romanticism.
Recommended Citation
Bellarsi, Franca A.
"Burroughs's Re-Invention of the Byronic Hero."
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
18.5
(2016):
<https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.2973>
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