‘The Delightful Logic of Intoxication’: Fictionalising Alcoholism

Abstract

Alcohol invariably connotes different, often conflicting, feelings. As Iain Gately rightly observes in Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol (2009), it “has been credited with the powers of inspiration and destruction” (1). This reflection is as relevant to classical antiquity, when wine was savoured during the Greek symposia, as to the modern world, in which alcohologists study the devastating effects of alcohol abuse. However, much as sociological, psychological, and medical research into alcoholism provide statistics, problem-analysis, and therapeutic approaches, literature offers representations of alcoholism which allow for a more profound insight into alcohol dependence and its many implications. This article focuses on how alcoholism is dissected and contextualised in literature, predominantly in contemporary English fiction.