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    Romance of the Road: The Literature of the American Highway Ronald Primeau Bowling Green State University Popular Press ‘Bowling Green, OH. crtions of chapter 3 hive appeared in different form in “The Endless em: Jack Kerouae's Midwest," Great Lakes Review 3 (1976): 73-86. printed by permission. “opyright © 1996 Bowling Green State University Popular Press brary of Congress Catalogingn Publication Data rimeau, Ronald Romance ofthe road : the literature ofthe American highway! Ronald Primes Pp. em. Incldes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87972-697-0 (cleshbound).-- ISBN 0-87972-698-9 (pbk) 1. Travelers’ writings, American--History and criticism. 2, American prose litrature—20thcentury-History and criticism. 3. American fiton--20th century-History and eriticism. 4, Automobile tavel-United States-Historiography. 5. Express highways-United States—Historiography. 6. Americans~Travel Historiography. 7. Automobile travel in iteratre, 8. Express highways in terature. 9 Travel in literature. 10, Quests in Htertue, 1 Tih PS366.773P75 1996 810.9°355-4c20 96-6021 Chaves detan by Lane Taces-Dhene For Katherine, at 25 1 Introduction: Road As Genre For most ofthis century, Americans have treated the highway as sacred space. Roads and cars have long gone beyond simple transportation to becone places of exhilarating motion, speed. and solitude. Getting away isa chance at a new start a special time to Aiscover self and county, glide through vast empty spaces and then ‘come home to write or sing abou the adventures In hundreds of books, ‘movies, poems, songs, and videos, the read journey is an epic quest, & pilgrimage, a romance, tual tha helps explain where Americans have been and where they tink they might be going, Accordingly. the art forms and cultural syrbots that have developed express a mode of ‘consciousness, a complet of values, a way of sebing the world. Since the 1950s readers have been fascinated by who goes on the road as well as ‘why, when, and where they go and what they discover along the way. Perhaps the most significant questions are why 0 many of these highway travelers want el their stories and why so many people want to read them. OF the aft forms celebrating life on the road, the prose narrative best captures the inne feolings ofa wide range of travelers. ‘To explore these and ether questions, this introduction begins with some preliminary definitions and then outlines an approach tothe study ‘of genre that emphasizes cultural analysis, genre memory, and a teader- response view of audience. ‘American road narratives are fiction and nonfiction books by Americans who travel by car throughout the county either ona quest ot ‘imply to getaway. The most common naraive structure follows the sequence of a journey fom preparation to departure, routing, decisions bout goals and modes of transport the arival, return and reentry, and finally, the recording or reconstructing of events in the telling ofthe sory. Protagonsts take 10 the road fora variety of reasons, and when goals are often frustrated, the iresolution makes telling the story more Urgent. The narration of evens isnot just a record of what happened bat away of trying to understand experiences by finding or making & pattem, The road genre isthe pattem in which this mode of discovery fakes shape, an artistic esdering of life on the highivay. 2. Romanee of the Road ‘Any attempt to define or classify that generic rendering of | experience is tru to the stricture of consciousness out of which it arises only when classification is descriptive and flexible rather than prescriptive and rigid. Just as Arstole's Poerics provided language for deseribing a tragic worldview, we might today talk about a horro-film description of events or a TV sit-com view of solving problems Following Whitman and Kerouac, several generations of writers and readers have shaped a prose-narratve visio of life on the road. Because readers come to recognize, expect, and eajoy repeated Literary formulas or rituals, authors rely on peeditable patterns for some assurance about ‘vat has worked $0 fr and for clues on how conventions can be further exploited, developed, or modified within a range of what wil sil be fccessible. At the same time, readers are likely select a book and bring to ther reading expectations based on what they understand io be the ‘genre's appeal. Such expectations create the opportunity for shared ‘Communication nd allow purposeful deviation from routine. Skepticism about genre study derives in part from the formalist ecrors of forcing ‘analyte definition or New Cfitcal tempts to isolate a genre from the cultural and social times it expresses. The road narrative is not an aubitrary mix of literary techniques or abstract themes but an artistic vision developed within a specific time and place. The history of the ene is best understood, therefore, not in abstract classification but ‘hough exposure to the evelving asic visions "AS anantistic way of thinking and feeling, a genre is what Mikhail ‘Bakhtin calls a “field for future expression enabling authors and readers to create by absorption and modification of literary conventions. The ‘gene collects and stores these predictable conventions for Inter use in ‘what Bakhun calls “genre memory.” This storage system allowed Dostoyevsky, for example, 10 develop his richly polyphonic works without knowing much direc about specific types of satire. Though ‘unaware of sources or influences, Destoyevsky nonetheless sensed the ‘enre tradition within which he could best express his views. Bakhtin sees this creative potential asthe greatest power of # genre: resources Stored in gente memory thus feed Dostoyevsky to respend tothe tone, inner logie, and nuances ofthe genre on the bass of pechaps only a few ‘models, Bakhtin feels that ¢ was not 29 mich Dostoyevsky remembering “but the objective memory ofthe very gente in which he worked, that preserved the pecliar features” of his satie. It is mostly the great ‘writes who ae stoned toa genre's fllest potential, and for them, the ‘opportunity to assume familiarity with conventions of a genre makes “Shortcuts” possible and expands artistic potential Introduction 3 In his essay “The Bildungsroman and Its Significance in the History of Realism,” Bakhtin shows how we can go beyond a state list of characteristics or prescriptions about what a genre ought to be (10- 59). He asks us to look instead atthe evolution of pattems stored in ‘genre memory. Comparing plots, conceptions of the world, and the types of eroes that emerge, Bakhn distinguishes berween novels of “travel” “ordeal” “biography” and “education” of “emergence.” In the travel novel, for example, a static hero is a mere moving point in spatial diversity. The temporal is poorly developed, sweeping contrasts are showcased, and almost no attention is given tothe sociocultural. Novels ‘of erdeal feature tests of virtue, saininess, romance, or chivalry. Haman beings suffering ordeals are moze developed, though still unitary. Bakhtin sees the novel of ordeal as an ancestor to later adventure fiction and psychological novels of sentiment. The biographical novel added the ‘confessional, hero worship, and, ltr, family Biography—though it was ‘ot until the 19th century that the gente depicted heres inthe process of becoming as in the Bildungsroman or the novel of education. For Bakhtin, the expression of “education” or “emergence” took several forms over time, fom the simple chronology or eylieal stages of epie ot adventure tales to the more individualistic growch of personality through paratves of life and work. In the most advanced sense of the Bildungsroman, Bakhtin believes, the emergence of any individaal occurs notin isolation but is “linked to historical emergences” (23). The world was fixed in much early travel literature, and heres citer submited to is fixity or defied order and suffered the consequences. Even when heroes individually broke away from rigid norms, however, the world didnot. Further, the ‘hero's education was essentially a private affair with litle connection to the static world. But the later Bildungsroman shaped a new artistic vision where human experience was no longer a private matter ater, the hero grows along withthe world and even represents “the historical emergence ofthe word itself.” The trary hero i that crated not to fit no a category oF imitate a model but to embody a process of growth or 4 transition between epochs that is “accomplished in him and through him.” The American road genre expresses this kind of emergence, reflecting inthe road hero evolving social and cultural values and beliefs. Road narratives also express what Bakhtin calls “the spatial ‘whole of the world.” Space onthe read isnot a passive background of a completed scene twavelers merely pass though, but is itself an evolving interaction ofthe pastoral landscape and cultural symbols, ‘As a practical mater, American road narratives capture time, place, and cudhars in chapibcand pegaiic sion. Lika Gtr eememaepentetx read, 4 Romance of the Road songs and movies, pose narratives af he highway daw on a st of fepenble literary convention through which caer can explore the tj quetons of th day. Road travels wel reafing abo if on the road provides oppertniis for a community of fllowsraveles, fthors, readers, an cis to share thei collective experiences ston, ales, an es te expel the ming, he edge omparng, and ibe inteeting. "The road's appeal extends Beyond he freely ray toa mode of expresicn in which ale explore and {Eines uel While terry slments may be a conservative toward fesrving tad, te eifietion of conventional paters opens up {he for othe individual the divergent and even the radial The proces soca ar wel because itis peop inthe conmaniy whe ke thers and wae and ed the books. Th ubir conventonality, cL-asionedness, and quiet ona, road strs express what Raymond Willems at cle the “dora, Ted and emergent” clemets inc elt aes. Dorian i alte is what we select and stat as being the mon tpicl or feprsenave wa of life or st of belie we might distinguish, fr ‘humple between the dominant featees of capitalist, socialist. Sfputan, of feudal scl Like Balin, Wiliams emphases pons ef wasiton between fret dominant eposhs a nell ar he Importance of pst eis and fur emergence a cla stems vee, He ost the tem eid” o refer Io ckmens ofa cate formed inthe past and sil onetioning as an active element ofthe presen, Values ov beliefs of the dominant ealtore may be 100 eonltent orcontovesal tobe expressed diet, snd so rsieal Stel may be ese ined, For example ro araives mit re ‘Rr the indvidoal in e mass-domineted society by celebrating The oid aes oft pons onthe onic At thease, he ira popunr and acepuble pace to express new meanings and vues that hie outside whats elie dian o sia. The emerge i topecily ciclo identify eae by mtr it i of hemes and ‘Sibel tat may not be ely formed and, more often than no, wl vec leave or opporidonal ates and eli. Moreover ‘Wiams cs hat he emerge constant jeopardy of beige Deed or goed by the dominant On the ond, he energet s most then manifesta expe, pola prose, or social efor and hay be pica evidea! in ead works by women or etic mnoies (2 Shaper 7, These diverse stands of dona, residual, and emespent Salture ate perhaps esi to sce in times of turmoil o wansiton, “Typical al the stages operate simultaneously in oud naratves esp oka Br cose el feoeed ennventionel” wl worcstiomy. Introduction 5 Road books open dialogues between oppesitionl elements. Old and new, high and low, traditional and innovative, optimistic and cynical ‘make space for each other in an exploratory mode. The coexistence of dominant, residual, and emergent elements invites people into dislogue that lgiimizes new insights not possible in overly retctive forms, The ritual of conventional patter thereby invites the medifieatons that make creativity posible ‘To express and influence cultural beliefs and atitudes, road narratives draw upon a rich genre memory of literary conventions extending as far hack a8 ancient travel literature, religioas pilgrimages, and mythic quests. n America, the earliest chronicles of movement have been native American storytellers, singers of the slave songs, dariss daring westward migration, travelers on stage coach and railroad, and finally, authors of automobile journeys. The earliest road adventurers shaped stories which then became available for Inter use as people who heard the stories took tothe road themselves, New and distinctive inthe twentieth century were the power, speed, status, and romance ofthe automobile, which quickly took on what B.A. Botkin ha called the “super icon” of the road to “freedom of activity and movement, 10 ‘opportunity and success” (Fishwick and Browne 48). Over many decades scholars have produced an abundance of research on trav tourism, and the role ofthe automobile in American life. Travel as been seen a5 the social glue that binds society together, a way to discover ‘one's real self ina release fom everyday constants, a way to participate ‘more fully in daily evens, anda chance to repair any numberof inter ‘mechanisms. From social, politcal, and psychological perspectives, vel is seen as the discovery or achievement of identity through lnzeraction with others, a well a6 a way to validate one’s vison ofthe world The automobile entered this long tradition of travel iterate snd added its own unique merging of the frontier spirit and the worship of the machine asa complex icon, The American car has always been more than just wansportation: itis status, sucess, dreams, adventure, mystery, and sex; it is what John Keats has called the insolent chariot and what ‘Marshall MeLahan pronounced tobe the mechanical brie “The evolution of American rod literature over the lst century has raven upon several long traditions of travel, quest, and adventure naratives. rave iterature inthe Westem tradition can be traced back at least as far as 13th-century Icelandic and Norwegian epic narratives ot ‘gas where a people in motion is caprured in ation tales of feuds and ‘ates. About 1500 Marco Polo's Travels brovght the East to Enrope — and this European perception of the East led to the redevelopment of ‘maps and increased exploration. In the late 14th century Chaucer's 6 Romance of the Road Canterbury Tales pesented a jourey trom London to Canterbury, where 30 people tell tories to entertain each othe a they arge their views of the world, From Ieelandie sagas to Marco Polo and Chaucer, these sMorytellers set out to explore whats up ahesd and, in the process, to define thei own culture's values, attitudes, and beliefs, Following the erature of pilgrimage and rites de passage, many road books focus on & goal and pass through what Victor Turner eall states of separation, liminalty 0 suspension, and reaggregation (The Rial Process 94.97), Goal orientation provides purpese and organizational pattem. Moreover, the pilgrim’s xense of direction provides cultural sanction for the ‘separation and indulgence in transience outside structures. Adherence 10 the goal often lends the story credibility and gives the characters permission to leave home or even to wander awhile, From the rich traditions of religious and secular stories, th toad narative adapts its ‘own departre rituals for detachment from normal events and everyday ‘delegations, a time of reveling in a fre-loating state beyond ordinary spatiotemporal bounds, and a renty stage wherein the renewed—or at st changed—subject returns to and comments on the cultural and tions add to this central pattern to make the road narrative an amalgam of different kinds of movement. The frontier myth offers hopes fora new stat. more space, healing motion. The Bildunss- ‘roman suggests youthful road heroes experiencing ination and growth, ‘Whitmanesque catalogs sprawl across the pages soaking up “othet™ in the “profound leston of reception.” Adding tension and power is the displaced religious quest where fallen heroes suffer the anguish of, separation from the divine and seck restorative motion and a recovery of paradise. Stories of life onthe road are often romantic quests for healing, race and apocalyptic vision followed by a return to the ordinary, with & transformed conscionsness ‘Although the road narative is neither tour guide nor an ancient epic quest, the genre does draw ftom travel literature and the mythic hero journey. In The Tourist: Travel in Twentieth-Century North ‘America, John A. Sakle has summarized several distinct stages inthe travel process, Drawing on Marion Clawson’s five parts of the recreational experience and ethologist Fred Fischer's ten phases of ‘animal movement, Jakle describes eight successive stages of travel “predisposition to travel, rp preparation, departure, outward movement, timabout, homeward movement, return, and trip recollection” (10). One begins with «need t be somewhere clic, renoness home while feeling anxiety about leaving, enacts a ritual departure, and experiences the ‘euphoria of outward movement, a climactic point where moving away Introduction 7 turns into moving back home, The traveler also undergoes the ficulties of reentry and relives the experiences in postcards, photo, souvenir, and travel diaries ‘The literature of the American highway is alo a modem version of what Joseph Campbell as called the monomyth. Cental tothe patter is the journey ofthe hero who sets out on aquest, experiences ordeals, and ultimately retuns triumphant, bringing restorative powers back home Key phases ofthe cycle are successive purification ta leading to slf- annihilation and rbit, the hero's possible refusal of challenges ard the need for magical flight or rescue, jealoasy of those who remain behind, and the necessary reentry where, in epic terms, “the speech-detying Pronouncements of the dead” are rendered back into “lightwor language” (243). One function of the monomyth isto effect ‘reconciliation of individual consciousness with unconscious wil,” to find a “true relationship of the passing phenomena of time to the imperishable life that ives and dies in us all” 242). A recurring hero deed in modern America isthe automobile journey with is call to adventure on the open road, its initiation rites of tials, threshold Crossings, confit, return, and resrrection. Although the pronounced ‘optimism and naiveeof the highway quest evade some ofthe snuggles and burdens ofthe ancient mythic stores, the pstern of fight, ial, and ‘reentry repeats the metivating power ofthe monomyth ‘Beyond travel literature and the hero journey, two additional pattems etched into road geare memory contribute to the diversity and ‘opaarityof road narratives. From picaresque ales, the road story gives ‘us atcals and rogues who wander aimlessly to undermine te status quo in episodic adventures that mock acceptable routines and values. Like the picaro antihero, protagonists on the road are cut lose from everyday restraints of work and daily experiences. As they revel in theit ‘wandering, picaro road characters may have dificulty with, or even ‘refuse, reintegration and choose instead to extend their journeys indefinitely, Finally, ike the epi tradition, road literature captures the coral dimensions of shared experience, or what John Fiske and John Harley have called bardic expression. Inthe telling of adventures that may be as available asthe nearest set of eat key, the highway myth- maker articulates a cultural consensus about what i real and what raters in the society. The hardic road nareatve draws readers into the dominant value systems of the culture, celebrates individual achievements within the larger group puters, and provides assurance ‘against fears of inadequacy At the same time, because life on the road ‘exposes the inadequacies of people and institutions back home, road ‘narratives develop overt counterculural protest ar use the conventional 8 Romance of the Road form to subvert present ideologies. In reaching a very wide audience, ‘oad stores function like the mass media in ther cretion ofa place for ‘negotiated definitions and redefinitons of values and political choices within an ever-changing institutionalized system. Shared texts eafiem. traditional values even a they challenge the status quo. The lure ofthe road invites the search for individuality within a community of people in ‘motion. Moreover, the gene often takes on the tone of pilgrimage 10 earch for origins, to define a culture separate from the old word, oF (0 explore vanishing regions of a land becoming homogenized. Various ‘myths—paradisal, frontier, individual, success, growth—reinforce one nother i the open spaces and on fast roads in powerful machines. ‘Although oad stories are indebted toa variety of older travel forms including the pilgrimage, the Bildungsroman, and the picaresque—ie ‘ere came to be recognized in is own right only a readers Began to ‘recognize familie pater of structure, theme, and syle close to home ‘Beginning about 1900, cros-country auto trips were popular subject for cestays and short stories, and for Several decades mainstream writers from Theodore Dreiser (Hoosier Holiday, 1916) to John Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath, 1939) included element of the highway quest in their ‘works. Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957), however, brought formal ‘recognition ofthe cultural ritual, and the gonre began to accumulate its ‘own distinctive features. Others followed over the next four decades ‘ther repeating with some variations the road pattem Kerouac had made popular or tying to get out from under his influence. As readers got used to cern oad genre conventions, authors wee both restrained 10 follow those paths and freed to modify the form and manipulate expectations 10 their Own ends. Thus the cultural and social uses of the form became more complex. Road authors grow increasingly aware of genre conventions, and a selfefleive critical commentary developed within the texts themselves. Moreover, eaders aware ofthe road tradition ‘entered into dialogue with road heroes, narrators, and authors—making the genre a particulary evealing measure of evolving cultural values. “The typical American road story plot grows out of a series of decisions about structure and narative perspective. In nonfiction, the initial questions are straightforward. Will the author be a participant narrator of choose a distanced narrative frame? Will readers be addressed ireily or kepc in the background? What kind of stucture— Sequential, flashback, dream sequence—is likely to capture events as they actually happened? How mach of the compositional process wil be shared with readers? Similar questions in prose fiction are only slightly ‘more complex as authors presumably invent the stories and relate them in a narrative frame. For example, to what extent will a protagonist step Introduction 9 ‘out of the action to draw attention to the fat that a story is make believe? After everyone gets back home, how does the story ge told and reach readers? And, of couse, there are always the questions of how ‘much fiction and nonfiction oveeaps—on or of the rad. Even prior to the construction of a narrative frame, motives for seiting out on a road quest establish some eters about what will be ‘observed and included Tater. The desire to get back in ouch with people, values, and landscapes creates a loose patter of apparently aimless wandering. In Travels with Charley, Steinbeck wants to hear the people again, and Charles Kuralt’s video essays set out secking the real ‘American behind the scenes. Often the pursuit of a specific gal creates the urgency of pilgrimage: returning the Big Bopper’s caro Towa in im Dodge's Not Fade Away, Blowing up a dam in Jim Harrison’ A Good Day to Die, getting a divorce in Anne Roiphe's Long Division ‘Sometimes the pater i @ retracing of a previous well-known joumey. Richard Reeves (American Journey) follows Tocqueville and Beamon, Jonathan Raban (Old Glory) goes down the river with Twain, and Dayton Duncan (Que West follows in the paths of Lewis and Clark. Less like pilgrimages or heroic quests ate the picaresque wanderings that ‘often seem aimless or even manic-depressive; Kerouac vearches for “It Kesey's pranksters (The Further Inguir) ceate a sprawling video, and ‘Tom Robbins's cowgirls (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) pursue ‘everything outrageous to mock the Bildung, the picaro, andthe narrative frame itself. Many narratives fellow apstem of loss and recovery where ‘the road journey attempts to repair o hal. Pilbert in David Seals's The Powwow Highway hopes the highway will help him recover his identity ‘as a warrior, Robert M. Pirsig tiesto reps the runs of dualistic philosophy, William Least Heat Moon travels the bie highways to heal his filed marviage and career. Sill others travel in desperation, 3s the Joads in Grapes of Wrath orto numb the pain a8 does Maria Wyeth in ‘oan Didion’s Play 1 As It Lays. Road protagonists leave home with ‘many diverse goals in mind, and narcative structures reflect these

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