I may only be in third year currently, but it seems the concept of a Final Year Project is not as far off as I previously believed. Last week (week 6) I had to find a supervisor for my thesis and provide a brief overview of the topic that I want to focus on. I found it tricky enough to narrow down my ideas to a single question, but eventually found something that I believe could make quite an interesting essay.
The Beat Generation has always interested me greatly – from Beat poetry to Beat novels. At the age of sixteen I read Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” for the first time, and this novel has been a major inspiration ever since – perhaps even my favourite book. Before I even began college, I knew that I wanted to create some form of project, at some stage, based upon the Beat Generation, as I had so much previous knowledge on the subject.
^(Check out this cool gif of Kerouac himself!)^
I decided to focus my FYP on the book.
The book is very interesting – it can be read as a riveting and intensely inspiring adventure novel, but it can also be read from some different perspectives. Upon a critical reading, I discovered that the text is quite sexist – the only females presented in the novel have absolutely no voice, and they are completely objectified, generalised, and sexualised. The topic of misogyny in “On the Road” is (according to my supervisor) a really interesting topic.
There is also a ton of previous literature about this, for example, there is a text by Carolyn Cassody titled “Off the Road” which shows the women of the Beat Generation’s perspective and their struggles.
Currently, the working title for my FYP is as follows: “To what extent have modern adaptations of Beat Generation texts been more inclusive of the female perspective, and why?”
I think this will be an exciting project to produce!
aaron's college life 