Novelists and Ethnicity : Jack Kerouac and Grace Metalious as Franco-Americans

Novelists and Ethnicity : Jack Kerouac and Grace Metalious as Franco-Americans

In this short piece, Richard Sorrell casts early twentieth-century writers Jack Kerouac and Grace Metalious into the timeline of Franco-American ethnic integration. Sorrell attempts to illustrate the relationship between these writers' works and their backgrounds, with many a turbid novel coming out of the struggle between Franco-American identity development and French-Canadian survivance. From Sorrell: "What possible line could there be between the man who wrote 'On the Road,' one of the founders of the 'beat' generation, and the crass promoter of lurid best-sellers such as 'Peyton Place?' The thesis of this essay is that such a connection can be found in a little-appreciated bond between the two authors, their common ethnic background. Kerouac and Metalious came from a heritage whose basic cultural attributes (maintenance of traditional nationality and religion, and militant defense of conservatism, Catholicism, and the family) seem to be in conflict with the popular image of both writers." (p. 37)

Sorrell, Richard S.

1982 Spring

Journal Article

1930-1970, New England

No

0163-755X

#1

37-52

MELUS

9