William Burroughs, Ghost of a Chance

Michael Sean Bolton (Independent Scholar - North America)

Ed. by Christopher Hugh Gair, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1991

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Utopian / Dystopian

Resources

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William S. Buroughs’s novella,

Ghost of a Chance

, is his last published fictional work of length. Published in 1991, the novella represents Burroughs’s clearest articulation of ecological concerns alongside utopian political/social theories he had developed in his work at least since

The Wild Boys

(1971). He sums up the overall theme of the novella, writing:

A rift is built into the human organism, the rift or cleft between the two hemispheres, so any attempt at synthesis must remain unrealizable in human terms. I draw a parallel between this rift separating the two sides of the human body and the rift that divided Madagascar from the mainland of Africa. One side of the rift drifted into enchanted timeless innocence. The other moved inexorably toward language, time, tool use, weapon

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960 words

Citation: Bolton, Michael Sean. "Ghost of a Chance". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4973, accessed 21 November 2024.]

William Burroughs, Ghost of a Chance

Dates

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