I decided to do my research about mountains in literature. More specifically, I am going to focus on Jack Kerouac and his works. It is generally known that he used to travel a lot and that he spent quite a lot of time in nature surrounded by mountains. He then wrote down some of his experiences and published semi-autobiographical novels.

            What inspired me the most to write about Jack Kerouac is his book The Dharma Bums in which together with Gary Snyder (his name in the book being Japhy Ryder) he climbed Matterhorn in Sierra Nevada, California. At first, I thought of doing my research based on this book alone, but later I decided to broaden my research. Therefore, Big Sur, Lonesome Traveler and some of Kerouac’s poems are going to be the other main sources for my research.

            My aim is to somehow get into Kerouac’s body and mind and describe what it felt to him to be in the mountains. How he depicted them, how he reacted to them, what his emotions were when he was ascending mountains or when he was simply surrounded by them. Some of these emotions were highly positive, but on the other hand, some were quite the opposite.

            Jack Kerouac was undoubtedly influenced by his friend Gary Snyder when it comes to climbing mountains. Therefore, a small portion of my research is going to be devoted to Gary Snyder’s influence. This goes hand in hand with religion which is another factor that played a big role in Kerouac’s relationship with mountains, and this will also be depicted in my research.

            Apart from the main sources being Kerouac’s works, I am going to use some secondary ones. All of them are listed below. However, the list is most probably not complete. I am sure that during the following weeks I will stumble upon other articles, journals or books that will help me with my research.

            I have been a fan of Jack Kerouac for a couple of years now, and I hope that doing this research will help me better understand his attitude towards mountains.

Sources

Bellman, Samuel I. 1959. “On the Mountain.”. Chicago Review 13 (1): 68–72.    https://doi.org/10.2307/25293504.

Brooks, Shelley. 2013. “Inhabiting the Wild: Land Management and Environmental Politics   in Big Sur.” Western Historical Quarterly 44 (3): 294–317.    https://doi.org/10.2307/westhistquar.44.3.0294.

Giamo, Benedict. 2003. “Enlightened Attachment: Kerouac’s Impermanent Buddhist Trek.” Religion & Literature 35 (2/3): 173–206.

Hull, Keith N. 1977. “A Dharma Bum Goes West to Meet the East.” Western American Literature 11 (4): 321–29.

Kerouac, Jack. 1958. The Dharma Bums. Penguin Modern Classics. Penguin Books, Limited (UK), 2000.

Kerouac, Jack. 1991. Scattered poems. City Lights Books.

Kerouac, Jack. 2000. Lonesome Traveler. Adfo Books.

Kerouac, Jack. 2018. Big Sur. Penguin Random House.

Miller, Alan L. 1995. “Ritual aspects of narrative: An analysis of Jack Kerouac’s ‘The Dharma Bums.’” Journal of Ritual Studies 9 (1): 41–53.

Robertson, David. 1992. “Real Matter, Spiritual Mountain: Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac on Mt. Tamalpais.” Western American Literature 27 (3): 209–26.