Literature and intoxication : writing, politics and the experience of excess / edited by Eugene Brennan, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 and Russell Williams, American University of Paris, France.
Introduction; Eugene Brennan and Russell Williams -- PART I: CULTURAL HISTORIES OF INTOXICATION -- 1. Writing and Intoxication: Drunken Philosophers, Crack Addicts and the Perpetual Present; Russell Williams -- 2. The Green Jam of 'Doctor X'. Science and Literature at the Club des Hashischins; Mike Jay -- PART II: POETIC INTOXICATIONS -- 3. Mourning and Mania: Visions of Intoxication and Death in the Poetry of Georges Bataille; Eugene Brennan -- 4. 'Riding the Lines'. The Poetics of the 'Chevauchements' in Henri Michaux's Drug Experiments; Mathieu Perrot -- 5. Fabulous Operas, Rock'n'Roll Shows: The Intoxication and Poetic Experimentation of Arthur Rimbaud and Jim Morrison; Alessandro Cabiati -- PART III: DIPSOMANIACAL NOVELISTS -- 6. Tipsiness and 'the Reigning Stupefaction' in the British Fiction of the Late 1940s; Joe Kennedy -- 7. 'Drink, She Said': Around the World of Durassian Alcohol; Anne-Lucille Gérardot -- PART IV: POLITICAL AND THEORETICAL CRITIQUES OF INTOXICATION -- 8. Intoxication and Toxicity in a 'Pharmacopornographic Era': Beatriz Preciado's Testo Junkie; Joshua Rivas -- 9. A Systemised Derangement of the Senses: The Situationist International and the Biopolitics of Dérive; Christopher Collier and Joanna Figiel -- 10. 'Beau comme le tremblement des mains dans l'alcoolisme': A Cavalier History of Drugs and Intoxication in the Situationist International; Alastair Hemmens -- 11. Intoxication and Acceleration: The Politics of Immanence; Benjamin Noys -- Selected bibliography -- Index.
Summary:
"Writers have often been drawn to intoxication, from the legal highs of cigarettes, coffee and alcohol to the illegal highs of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. Intoxication has not only been a way to aid creativity - literary writers have also explored and shaped our experiences of intoxication. In trying to write these altered states, they have made radical experiments to create works that mimic, and even induce, states of intoxication. This collection draws together a range of academics and writers to explore these states of intoxication and experiences of excess. It considers a wide variety of states of excess, moving from the possibilities of an intoxicated text to a critical account of the appropriation of excess within global capitalism". --Publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.