An "Orpheus Complex" in Two Writers-of-Loss

Writers James Agee and Jack Kerouac each experienced a death in the family at an early age, and each went on tirelessly to document the event in great detail and in various artistic contexts. This article takes Agee and Kerouac to be exemplars of a potentially generalizable profile of writers-of-loss—an "Orpheus Complex." How a loss-afflicted personality structure both mediates and invites creative responses is elucidated.