Seminar Anaesthetics Drugs and Visions in Literature Masterseminar

-[H]ere was the secret of happiness, about which philosophers had disputed for so many ages, at once discovered; happiness might now be bought for a penny, and carried in the waistcoat-pocket; portable ecstasies might be had corked up in a pint-bottle; and peace of mind could be sent down by the mail.” Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater Drugs have always been an integral part of societies and are considered to be a source of vision, creativity and spontaneous inspiration for many writers to this day. Be it alcohol or laudanum, lsd or heroin in drug manifestos and phantasmagorical narratives: the way in which we reflect upon these stories - literally make sense of them – gives a seemingly unmediated view of the cathartic significance of ecstasy within tripping societies at different points of time, whilst drastically demonstrating how narcotics affect and alter our perception. How can we establish the function of an author in such a context? What is the popular appeal of drug-fiction? Accordingly, the texts in this seminar will focus on narrative strategies utilized in drug-induced literature from Romanticism to Post-Modernism. Excerpts of selected texts will be available online via the document server of the university library (elektronischer Semesterapparat). The novels by Thompson and Clegg will have to be obtained separately (see below). This seminar will include a considerable amount of reading! Primary Reading: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, -Kubla Khan” (1816) Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1821) Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (1954) and Moksha (1977) Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971, ordered at Stern Verlag on Campus) Bill Clegg, Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man (2010, ordered at Stern Verlag on Campus) with excerpts from: Charles Baudelaire, Les Paradis Artificiels (1860) Thomas de Quincey, Coleridge and Opium-Eating and Other Writings (1862) Lewis Caroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865) Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932) and Island (1962) William S. Burroughs, Junky (1953) and Naked Lunch (1962) Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting (1993) Anglistik IV: Modern English Literature Universität Düsseldorf WiSe 2015/16 Dr. Gurke Thomas