William Burroughs, The Place of Dead Roads

Chad Weidner

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 1983

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The Place of Dead Roads

was published by Viking Press in 1983. It is the second book of a late Burroughs trilogy that began with

Cities of the Red Night

(1981) and ended with

The Western Lands

(1987).

The Place of Dead Roads

is an extension of the first book’s discussion of the need for new forms of collectivism as well as self-government. The book also explores supposed better forms of social organization that involve the construction of compounds to oppose the growth of central government. The narrative also claims that the creation of an underground force for liberation can help turn back the clock, as often occurs in Burroughs’ narratives, to retrieve the potentials of the past.

The Place of Dead Roads is arranged non-chronologically, and the narrative essentially works backwards.

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1143 words

Citation: Weidner, Chad. "The Place of Dead Roads". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 December 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7397, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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