Literature and Intoxication ― Writing, Politics and the Experience of Excess

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.

Eugene Brennan has worked with the English department at Universite Paris 13 for the past four years. He holds a B.A joint major in English and Music, and an M.A in Cultural History from University College Dublin. He is currently completing a PhD thesis on Georges Bataille with the University of London Institute in Paris.

Russell Williams is a Paris-based writer, critic and researcher. His PhD thesis explored the fiction of the Michel Houellebecq. He specialises in contemporary French fiction and the neo-polar, crime and detective writing in French from the 1960s to the present day.