The (Revised) Boy Scout

doi:10.1017/9781009554732.023

Chapter 21 - The (Revised) Boy Scout

Youth, Nostalgia, and Memory

from Part III - Space-Time Travel

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2026

Thom Robinson

Edited by

Oliver Harris ,

Davis Schneiderman and

Alex Wermer-Colan

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

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Summary

This chapter explores the central role of nostalgia, youth, and memory across the works of William Burroughs, challenging his reputation as an anti-sentimental icon of literary transgression. Thom Robinson traces Burroughs’ shifting relationship with nostalgia – from early satirical treatments in The Yage Letters and Naked Lunch, through the melancholic repetitions of the cut-up era, to the queer adolescent utopias of his later novels. These texts, including The Wild Boys, Cities of the Red Night, and The Place of Dead Roads, draw heavily on Burroughs’ own youth, subvert the moral codes of institutions like the Boy Scouts of America, and reimagine coming-of-age as a site of resistance and sexual awakening. Through his admiration for Denton Welch and incorporation of children’s literature tropes, Burroughs ultimately transforms nostalgia from a regressive impulse into a creative, disruptive force – an affective mechanism through which the past might be rescripted in defiance of normative adulthood.

Keywords

William S. Burroughs nostalgia adolescence boyhood memory queer youth Boy Scouts Denton Welch parody Los Alamos Ranch School coming-of-age

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Type: Chapter
Information: William Burroughs in Context , pp. 272 - 284

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009554732.023 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2026

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References

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