The De-colonizer

doi:10.1017/9781009554732.015

Chapter 13 - The De-colonizer

“An All-Out Riot Is Like a Tonic”

from Part II - Identities

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2026

Alan Carmody

Edited by

Oliver Harris ,

Davis Schneiderman and

Alex Wermer-Colan

Show author details

Oliver Harris: Affiliation:
Keele University
Davis Schneiderman: Affiliation:
Lake Forest College
Alex Wermer-Colan: Affiliation:
Temple University

Book contents

Get access

Summary

This chapter explores William Burroughs’ fraught engagement with queerness, colonialism, and nationalism across such key texts as Queer, The Yage Letters, Naked Lunch, and The Wild Boys. Drawing on Oliver Harris’ and Alex Wermer-Colan’s insights into Burroughs’ overidentification with imperial tropes, Carmody argues that Burroughs simultaneously critiques and reappropriates colonial discourse through a queer lens. Through grotesque, parodic routines, Burroughs exposes the libidinal underpinnings of American exceptionalism and neocolonialism. Carmody situates Burroughs’ postwar expatriate writing – especially in 1950s Tangier – as emblematic of a nostalgic yet radical vision for a postnational community, rooted in aesthetic freedom and sexual plurality. Highlighting the transformation from colonial critique to postcolonial fantasy, Carmody demonstrates how Burroughs reimagines the colony as a site of anarchic potential, rather than nationalist redemption. The chapter ultimately suggests that Burroughs’ literary project is less a political blueprint than an unstable, generative terrain where queer desire and imperial critique intersect.

Keywords

William S. Burroughs colonial discourse queer imperialism postnationalism neo-colonialism The Yage Letters Naked Lunch Queer Tangier anticolonial satire

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: William Burroughs in Context , pp. 171 - 183

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009554732.015 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2026

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Works Cited

Burroughs, William S. The Adding Machine: Selected Essays. New York: Grove, 2013.Google Scholar

Burroughs, William S. Cities of the Red Night. London: Picador, 1982.Google Scholar

Burroughs, William S. Everything Lost: The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs, Revised Edition. Ed. Harris, Oliver, Smith, Geoffrey D., and Bennett, John M.. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2017.Google Scholar

Burroughs, William S. The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945 to 1959. Ed. Harris, Oliver. London: Picador, 1993.Google Scholar

Burroughs, William S. Naked Lunch: The Restored Text. Ed. Grauerholz, James and Miles, Barry. New York: Grove, 2003.Google Scholar

Burroughs, William S. Nova Express: The Restored Text. Ed. Harris, Oliver. New York: Grove, 2014.Google Scholar

Burroughs, William S. Queer. Ed. Harris, Oliver. New York: Penguin, 2010.Google Scholar

Burroughs, William S. The Revised Boy Scout Manual: An Electronic Revolution. Ed. Smith, Geoffrey D. and Bennett, John M.. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2018.Google Scholar

Burroughs, William S. The Wild Boys. London: Calder, 1972.Google Scholar

Burroughs, William S. and Ginsberg, Allen. The Yage Letters Redux. Ed. Harris, Oliver. San Francisco: City Lights, 2006.Google Scholar

Burroughs, William S. and Gysin, Brion. The Third Mind. New York: Viking Press, 1978.Google Scholar

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness, in Youth: A Narrative and Two Other Stories. London: J. M. Dent, 1923.Google Scholar

Edwards, Brian T. Morocco Bound: Disorientating America’s Maghreb from Casablanca to the Marrakech Express. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.Google Scholar

Harris, Oliver. William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2003.Google Scholar

Miles, Barry. Call Me Burroughs: A Life. New York: Twelve, 2014.Google Scholar

McNeil, Legs. “William Tells,” Spin (October 1991), 68–108.Google Scholar

Mortenson, Erik. Capturing the Beat Moment: Cultural Politics and the Poetics of Presence. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2011.Google Scholar

Mullins, Greg. Colonial Affairs: Bowles, Burroughs, and Chester Write Tangier. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.Google Scholar

Russell, Jamie. Queer Burroughs. New York: Palgrave, 200.Google Scholar

Wermer-Colan, Alex. “William S. Burroughs’ Imperial Decadence: Subversive Literature in the Cynical Age of the American Century.” In Cutting Up the Century, ed. Hawkins, Joan and Wermer-Colan, . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019: 219–240.Google Scholar

Žižek, Slavoj. The Plague of Fantasies. London: Verso, 2009.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

The HTML of this chapter complies with version 2.1 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), covering newer accessibility requirements and improved user experiences and achieves the intermediate (AA) level of WCAG compliance, covering a wider range of accessibility requirements.

Content Navigation

Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.

Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.

Reading Order & Textual Equivalents

Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.

Visual Accessibility

Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.

Structural and Technical Features

ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.