Naked Lunch

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Naked Lunch is a groundbreaking and controversial novel by William S. Burroughs, known for its nonlinear, hallucinatory depiction of addiction and its central place in Beat Generation literature.

Aliases (1)

Statements (48)
Predicate Object
instanceOf experimental fiction work
novel
author William S. Burroughs
countryOfOrigin United States
criticalReception considered a landmark of 20th-century American literature
regarded as a key Beat Generation text
filmAdaptationDirector David Cronenberg
firstPublicationPlace Paris
firstPublisher Olympia Press
genre Beat literature
experimental fiction
postmodern literature
satire
science fiction elements
transgressive fiction
hasAdaptation Naked Lunch (1991 film)
hasCharacter William Lee
influenced countercultural writers of the 1960s
cyberpunk authors
postmodern literature
influencedBy Beat Generation writing practices
Burroughs’s experiences with heroin addiction
Burroughs’s travels in Tangier
language English
legalStatusHistory banned in some U.S. jurisdictions
central work in U.S. obscenity law debates
literaryMovement Beat Generation
narrativeVoice first-person narrator
notableFor controversial obscenity trials
cut-up style passages
depiction of drug addiction
hallucinatory imagery
nonlinear narrative structure
pageCountApprox ~255 pages (Grove Press edition)
publicationYear 1959
publisher Grove Press
setting Interzone
structure fragmented vignettes
nonlinear episodes
style black humor
collage-like composition
surreal imagery
subjectOf obscenity trial in the United States
theme bureaucracy and systems of control
control and power
drug addiction
paranoia
sexuality

Referenced by (4)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Naked Lunch ("Naked Lunch (1991 film)")
hasAdaptation
Beat Generation
hasNotableWork
William S. Burroughs
hasSignatureWork
William S. Burroughs
notableWork

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