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Drink and Alcohol Literature: Two Critical Perspectives

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2021-02-01
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Klepuszewski, Wojciech. “Drink and Alcohol Literature: Two Critical Perspectives”. Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, vol. 24, no. 2, Feb. 2021, https://ojs.lib.unideb.hu/hjeas/article/view/7236.
Abstract

The essay discusses two contrasting critical perspectives on the intersection between drink/alcohol and literature, claiming that criticism concerning the literature of the British Isles (English, Scottish, and Irish authors’ work) is generally text-oriented, that is, targets literature per se and the way writers thematize drink, while criticism concentrating on the American literary scene focuses on the alcohol-dependence of writers, and/or the way their alcohol-dependence affects their work, or the way alcoholism is portrayed in literary works. Whereas the criticism on authors in the British Isles emphasizes conviviality as a key trait of the way drink/drinking is represented in literature, studies on American authors often highlight drinking alcohol as a pathology, a physical, mental, and social malfunction. Thus, the former can be labeled drink/drinking literature, and the latter can be framed as what Marcus Grants has dubbed “alcoholism literature.”  (WK)