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Apr 18, 2024
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ENGL078 PO - Medieval DrugsWhen Offered: Offered alternate years; next 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.
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