Jack Kerouac 100 | Materialidades da Literatura

No próximo dia 28 de outubro de 2022, tem lugar na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra uma jornada evocativa do centenário do nascimento do escritor norte-americano Jack Kerouac. A jornada integra um colóquio, que decorre no Anfiteatro III (9h00-18h30), e um concerto no Teatro Paulo Quintela (19h00). Trata-se de uma organização da Secção de Estudos Anglo-Americanos e do Departamento de Línguas, Literaturas e Culturas, com a colaboração do Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente. Programação completa: colóquio e concerto.

2022 is the centenary of Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), one of the greatest writers of the Beat Generation. Kerouac not only influenced a generation of poets and artists, but also inspired a new way of life to many people from the 50s onwards. His experimental novel, On the Road, which was made into a film with the same title (Walter Salles, 2012) is one the most well-known examples of his work. But long before this novel was adapted to the screen, Kerouac’s work was already internationally recognized and very influential to a countless number of young people in Europe and beyond. The Portuguese reception of his work is a curious example of the impact of this novel abroad, since it was only in the period after the ‘25th of April’ that On the Road became an icon for Portuguese youngsters: it was only then that they could finally enjoy freedom without borders, as proposed by the novel in the aftermath of WWII in the USA. The beginning of the Cold War, the “red scare”, censorship, an unprecedented escalation of capitalism and consumerism and the atomic threat lead to demands for resistance, the celebration of democratic values and nonconformist ideals — and those are, above all, the ideas the Beat Generation came to be associated with.