Jawbreaker

Abstract

This chapter identifies an uneasy but productive relationship between punk philosophies and aesthetics and contemporary conceptions of ‘the literary’ in the music of Jawbreaker and their primary songwriter Blake Schwarzenbach. I note the ways in which literary allusion both challenges dogmatic punk scene politics and rigid subcultural ‘rules’ in this work, while also reflexively drawing attention to literary pretension and elitism with equal force. I trace this tension in order to make a set of provisional claims about Jawbreaker and about the potential synergies between punk and literary cultures more broadly. Ultimately, this essay explores the extents to which punk can be said to be ‘literary’ and asks what is at stake in terms of authenticity and DIY culture when we conceive of punk as literary while also noting the ways that punk helps us reflect critically on what ‘the literary’ actually is.