Description
Book SynopsisThe book offers an invaluable introduction to the topic of the representation of alcohol
in literature and film from antiquity to the present.
The first part deals with literature and includes a genealogy of the relationship between
alcohol and fiction. The authors set two Victorian ghost stories and a Nigerian phantasmagorical
fable as examples of how alcohol dilutes the boundaries between the
living and the dead. The part devoted to film approaches the matter of alcohol both
as a personal vice and a vehicle of social interaction. The authors explore American,
Irish, and Polish films, paying particular attention to the masculinities they portray.
The whole volume can serve as a textbook on these issues. The books and films analyzed
will constitute an ample reading and viewing list for a university course.
Table of Contents1. The Transformations of Dionysus: Chasing the Ancient God of Wine through History
2. "Well, I’ve Been Drinking, but What I Saw Was Real": Unreliability of Sight in Two Victorian Short Stories
3. A Hero and His Quest: Gods, Magic, and Alcohol in The Palm-Wine Drinkard
4. "You Want Water, You Better Go Dunk You Head in the Horse Trawl Back There": Socio-Cultural Aspects of Drinking in Polish Westerns
5. "Times Have Changed": The Pub, Alcohol, and Masculinities in Stephen Frears’s The Snapper (1993)
6. The Drunkard’s Guilt and Trauma in Manchester by the Sea (2016)
