Preliminary Research Findings for Junky

Oliver Harris, a professor at Keele University has the most articles on William S. Burroughs. According to his introduction in the 50th Anniversary Definitive edition of Junky, Harris was personally acquainted with Burroughs and took a special interest in him in the early 1980s. He has published a paper called, “Can You See a Virus? The Queer Cold War of William Burroughs.”

There is not a whole lot of publications that seem to publish texts on Burroughs more than others. Due to his fame and widespread literary appeal, literary critics and even psychologists have studied his works, creating a widespread publication basis.

Recent research done on Burroughs is based off of interviews done while he was alive and building upon the research done by others. There is no one specific research center where this kind of search is done.

Most of my recent findings related to my topic are somewhat contradictory on whether they refer to Junky as autobiographical or fiction. It is a major debate that even as an unbiased reader encounters. The prologue and knowledge of his life lends people to believe that is autobiographical while the pseudonym and the label of fiction makes others believe it is just fiction.

A major hypothesis existing towards my research problem is how Burroughs was portrayed by the media and how that contrasts with the actual man. A fair amount of research will have to be done to surface the differences between his public persona and his actual person and intentions.