2018-19 Pomona College Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2018-19 Pomona College Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG] Use the dropdown above to select the current 2023-24 catalog.

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ENGL078 PO - Medieval Drugs

When Offered: Last offered spring 2016.
Instructor(s): J. Kirk
Credit: 1

The basis of prehistoric religion (and-it has been suggested-the origin of human consciousness itself) is the encounter with other worlds that can be brought on by certain hallucinogenic plants. In this seminar we will examine how archaic “techniques of ecstasy” survived, more or less underground, into the European Middle Ages, as well as inquire more generally into the nature and status of inebriation, poisoning and visionary trance states. To be considered: love potions in medieval romances; the relations between mystical experiences and plant-derived ecstasies; the use of hallucinogens (mandrake, belladonna, etc.) by “witches”; the history of medicine and alchemy; dream visions and astral travel; the pursuit of stupor. Authors may include: Chretien de Troyes, Hildegard of Bingen, Geoffrey Chaucer, Julian of Norwich, Marie de France, Joan of Arc, Roger Bacon.
Satisfies the following General Education Requirement(s), subject to conditions explained in the Degree Requirements section of this Catalog:
Area 1



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