[In the following essay, Eburne examines the influence of the Cold War-era ideological construct of "otherness" in Naked Lunch and in Jack Kerouac's The Subterraneans, comparing its effect on the subjectivity of each novel.]

In the following essay, Ahearn places Burroughs in the tradition of apocalyptic writing that includes William Blake and Lautréamont.

In the following essay, Lydenberg analyzes Burroughs's literary voice as it is expressed on his experimental tape recordings.

In the following essay, Foster examines Burroughs's rejection of the values of Western civilization.

[In the following essay, Punday analyzes the meaning of the narrative structure of Cities of the Red Night based on linguist A. J. Greimas' theoretical construction of the semiotic square.]

In the following essay, Shaviro explores Burroughs's place in the “landscape of postmodern biology.”

In the following essay, Oxenhandler examines Burroughs's poetic voice.

[In the following essay, Stephenson discusses Burroughs's middle and late works in the context of Gnostic thought, focusing principally on the themes of The Soft Machine.]

[In the following essay, Wood explains the connection between Burroughs's works and cyberpunk writing.]

Burroughs' novels are so chaotic that life itself seems calm and ordered by comparison. Structure and plot simply do not exist; characters are flat, interchangeable, and strangely unimportant; the narrative thrashes about with no apparent direction or coherence, and words scatter like so many jig-saw-puzzle pieces thrown into the air. Each book is a montage of startling images, fragmented episodes, scraps of dialogue, patches of exposition, and cultural echoes ranging from Renaissance drama to modern...

[In the following essay, which originally appeared in 1980 in Occidem, Parkinson approaches Naked Lunch as continuing the "peculiar American tradition of hilarity" in literature.]

The world of William S. Burroughs is not a world of fantasy; it is real, it is "reality." But "reality" is defined by Western culture; it is insane, schizophrenic, and more fantastic than fantasy could ever be…. It is a reality in which the environment is objective and mechanical, and it is a reality whose machinery has come to life, like the kitchen gadgets that assault the housewife in Naked Lunch…. This is schizophrenia; objects are self-activating and living bei...

[In the following review of the first volume of The Letters of William S. Burroughs, Campbell gleans the "facts" of Burroughs's early writing career from his correspondence, observing its relation to specific works and other Beat writers.]

[In the following obituary, Severo reviews Burroughs's life and literary achievements.]

[In the following review, Cohen detects an "autumnal, elegiac" tone in the imagery of My Education.]

[In the following obituary, the writer provides an overview of Burroughs's life and career.]

[In the following review, Weissman assesses the dream-like aspects of My Education.]

[In the following obituary, Obejas appreciates Burroughs's influence on modern music and art.]

[In the following essay, Weil summarizes the highlights of Burroughs's life and career.]

"Cities of the Red Night" is a book of limited but, for its own happy few, intense appeal. Opium addicts who are sexually aroused by witnessing and/or enacting garrotings and hangings will find "Cities" a veritable gallows of delight…. Guided by Ix Tab, a jealous goddess, Mr. Burroughs has eliminated from his book everything incidental to the central task of spinning and respinning the same yarn—characterization, wit, stylistic graces, anything that might detract fr...

One of William Burroughs's many gifts is to employ the methods of caricature by exaggerating essential traits, and yet to avoid a two-dimensional effect. Readers who previously have been scared off only by Burroughs's experiments with language, scissors and paste, have nothing to fear from Cities of the Red Night, which is written entirely in straight-forward English, much of it the spare, Hammett-like prose of Junky and parts of Naked Lunch…. [In] the last few years Burroughs has repea...

[In the following obituary, Varadajan offers highlights of Burroughs's career.]