Oliver Harris

Biography

After gaining a Double First in English Language and Literature from Christ Church, Oxford, I went on to study for my doctorate there (1984-88), before working free-lance as an editor and writer. In 1993 I joined the department of American Studies, where I’ve taught a wide range of modules, from English and American 20^th-century fiction to courses on the Beat Generation and the Counterculture of the 1960s, from introductions to cinema to specialist courses on film noir and Alfred Hitchcock. From 2003 I was Programme Director for English and American Literatures and then also for American Studies. Over the past fifteen years I've become a leading scholar in the Beat field, especially on the work of William Burroughs, and in 2010 I became founding President of the European Beat Studies Network.

Research and scholarship

Since completing my D.Phil at Oxford, I’ve focused on material scholarship, and of my ten books, eight have been editions of works by William Burroughs: The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959 (1993); a fiftieth anniversary edition of his first novel, Junky: the definitive text of “Junk” (2003); his epistolary novella, The Yage Letters Redux (2006); Everything Lost: The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs (2008); a 25^th-anniversary edition of Queer (2010) and the famous "Cut-Up Trilogy": The Soft Machine: the Restored Text (2014), Nova Express: the Restored Text (2014), and the Ticket That Exploded: the Restored Text (2014).

In 2019, I introduced a new edition of Burroughs’ prophetic novel Blade Runner: A Movie (prophetic not only of Ridley Scott’s film, which borrowed the title from Burroughs, but of a cataclysmic viral pandemic…), and in 2020, to mark the 60th anniversary of the original cut-up texts, I published four new cut-up editions: Dead Fingers Talk: the Restored Text, by Burroughs; Minutes to Go Redux, by Burroughs, Sinclair Beiles, Brion Gysin, and Gregory Corso; The Exterminator Redux, by Burroughs and Gysin’ and BATTLE INSTRUCTIONS, a previously unpublished work by Burroughs assembled from archival sources.

Most recently, I have published a series of collaborative works: in 2022, Overpainted Beats, with the Italian artist Elia Inderle, and in 2023, Two Assassins: William Burroughs / Hassan Sabbah, with the Iranian writer Farid Ghadami. I also published a major essay, “Making Dead Fingers Talk” in a new volume of Burroughs criticism, and two short critical books: A Burroughs Triptych and Making Naked Lunch: Two Appetisers (all 2022). In 2023 I organised CUT-UPS@2023, a 4-day conference in Paris, and started co-editing William Burroughs in Context for Cambridge University Press.

Teaching

I teach literature, mainly 20^th-century American and English fiction, and also film, but my specialism is the culture of the post war period. I’ve taught a range of modules about the Beat Generation of the 1950s (key writers: Burroughs, Kerouac, Ginsberg), and about the counterculture of the 1960s (writers from Ken Kesey via Thomas Pynchon to Carlos Castaneda).

As for film, I teach an introduction to American Cinema course and Alfred Hitchcock’s America, both at Level 2, and run a film noir module at Level 3.  I'd like to offer a module on adaptation (having published a study of Hemmingway and Hollywood in Literature and the Visual Media [2005], but that's one for the future. For postgraduates, I have supervised and examined numerous PhDs about William Burroughs, and am currently supervising a PhD on the work of Alfred Hitchcock.

As is reflected in my scholarship and editing work, I also have a special interest in the materiality of writing.  If you're at all interested in Burroughs, you're welcome to get in touch; for the premier Burroughs website, you should check out Reality Studio.

Further information

Main publications

	Two Assassins: William Burroughs/Hassan Sabbah (2023) Review
	Making Naked Lunch: Two Appetisers (2022)
	Making Dead Fingers Talk Review
	Overpainted Beats (2022) Review
	A Burroughs Triptych (2022) Review
	Dead Fingers Talk (2020)
Review	Dead Fingers Talk Review Dead Fingers Talk Review 2
‌	Minutes to Go Redux (2020)
‌	The Exterminator Redux (2020)
‌	BATTLE INSTRUCTIONS (2020)
Review	Battle Instructions Review Trilogy Review Moloko Trilogy Review
	Blade Runner (2019)
Review	Blade Runner Review Blade Runner Review 2
	The Soft Machine (2014)
Review Essay	Operation Total Exposure
Review	‌
	Nova Express (2014)
Review Essay	Operation Total Exposure
Review	Triology Review
	The Ticket That Exploded (2014)
Review Essay	Operation Total Exposure
Review Essay	‌
	Queer: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition (2010) Interview Interview 2   | ‌
‌‌‌	Naked Lunch@50: Anniversary Essays (2009) Review
	Everything Lost: the Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs (2008) Interview | Review 1 | Review 2
	The Yage Letters Redux (2006) Review 1
	Junky: The Definitive Text of "Junk" 50th Anniversary Edition (2003) Reviews
	William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination (2003) Review
	The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945-1959 (1993)
	“Cutting Up the Corpse,” in The Exquisite Corpse: Chance and Collaboration in Surrealism's Parlor Game (2009) edited by Davis Schneiderman et al.
	"'Virus X': Kerouac's Visions of Burroughs," in Reconstructing the Beats (2004) edited by Jennie Skerl
	"Cut-Up Closure: The Return to Narrative," in William S. Burroughs at the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989 (1991) edited by Jennie Skerl and Robin Lydenberg
	"Cutting up Politics" in Retaking the Universe: William S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization (2004) edited by Davis Schneiderman and Philip Walsh

Critical articles on-line

• Time Life "Minute Particulars of the Counter-Culture: Time, Life, and the Photo-poetics of Allen Ginsberg" in Comparative American Studies (2012).
• Cold War Correspondents: Ginsberg, Kerouac, Cassady, and the Political Economy of Beat Letters (from twentieth Century Literature 46 (Summer 2000), 171-192) Read more here.
• Beating the Academy (from College Literature 27.1 (Winter 2000), 213-231). ‌
• “’Can You See A Virus?’ The Queer Cold War of William Burroughs” (from Journal of American Studies 33.2 (1999), 243-266). Read more here
• "Burroughs is a poet too, really": the poetics of Minutes to Go from The Edinburgh Review 114 (2005), 24-36. Read more here
• "Not Burroughs' Final Fix: Materializing : The Yage Letters" from Postmodern Culture 16.3 (January 2006). Read more here

Conference papers on-line

• “‘Confusion’s Masterpiece’: Re-editing Burroughs’ First Trilogy” (Columbia Book Colloquium, 16/9/2010)
• From Dr. Mabuse to Doc Benway: the Myths and Manuscripts of Naked Lunch  (Columbia Keynote address 9/10/2009)
• The Holy Shit of Burroughs and Kerouac (13/12/2008)
• Cutting Up the Archive: William Burroughs and the Composite Text (25/5/2007)

"Watch Live Keynote Talk (2014)"

• "A Life-Time Cut-Up": Keynote given at The Photographer's Gallery (2014)

Podcasts

An interview with Ben Heal of the European Beat Studies Network (August 2020)
https://ebsn.eu/scholarship/playback-the-ebsn-podcast/

A personal interview with Colombian poet Elizabeth Torres for her Red Transmissions series (Decemeber 2020)https://reddoormagazine.com/podcast/