Writing Under the Influence: Alcoholism and the Alcoholic Perception from Hemingway to Berryman

180 Pages·2010·2.41 MB·English

by  Matts G. Djos (auth.)

Writing Under the Influence
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Writing Under the Influence
Alcoholism and the Alcoholic
Perception from Hemingway to
Berryman
Matts G. Djos
Palgrave
macmillan
WRITING UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Copyright © Matts G. Djos, 2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-10260-6
All rights reserved.
First published in 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-28695-9 ISBN 978-0-230-10913-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230109131
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Djos, Matts G.
W riting under the influence : alcoholism and the alcoholic perception
from Hemingway to Berryman / Matts G. Djos.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-349-28695-9 (alk. paper)
1. American literature—20th century—History and criticism.
2. Alcoholics in literature. 3. Alcoholism in literature. 4. Alcoholism—
Psychological aspects. 5. Authors, American—20th century—Alcohol
use. 6. Authors, American–20th century—Psychology. I. Title.
PS228.A58D56 2010
810.9(cid:2)92074—dc22 2009041074
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: May 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Jeanine
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Contents
A Note on the Author ix
Acknowledgments xi
Foreword xiii
Chapter One
The Foundations of Alcoholic Thinking and
the Role of Fantasy, Alienation, and Rebellion 1
Chapter Two
Alcoholism in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun
Also Rises: A Wine and Roses Perspective of
the Lost Generation 13
Chapter Three
Addiction and Spirituality in Contemporary
American Poetry: Frustration and Paradox 29
Chapter Four
John Berryman’s “Phase Four” and His
Precarious Attempt to Find a Compromise between
Drunkenness, Sobriety, and the A.A. Twelve Step
Program of Recovery 43
Chapter Five
The Grand Illusion: Evasion, Survival, and Self-Hate 53
Chapter Six
The Alcoholic Isolation and Fall to Self-Destruction in
Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Mr. Flood’s Party” 61
Chapter Seven
Sex and Promiscuity: Conjugal Detachment and
the Fear of Intimacy 69
viii Contents
Chapter Eight
Alcoholic Guilt and Emotional Paralysis: Bathos,
Incongruity, and Frustration 79
Chapter Nine
The Contaminated Vision: The Alcoholic Perspective
in Hart Crane’s “The Wine Menagerie” 87
Chapter Ten
Clowns and Bedlam: The Dark Side of
Alcoholic Humor 95
Chapter Eleven
Through a Glass Darkly: Death and Dissolution 105
Afterword 115
Appendix 1: A Note on the Author 119
Appendix 2: T he Emotional, Spiritual, and Physical
Dimensions of Alcoholism: An Overview 131
Appendix 3: Twelve Step Programs and the
Literature of Addiction 137
Appendix 4: A .A.’s Primary Texts: Alcoholics
Anonymous and Twelve Steps and Twelve
Traditions: A Review 145
Appendix 5: Suggested Additional Reading 153
Notes 155
Bibliography 165
Index 171
A Note on the Author
Matts G. Djos, Ph.D. has been in public education for more
than forty-five years. He graduated from the University of
Washington and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts and a Standard
Secondary Teaching Certificate in English in 1961. He was
awarded a Master of Arts in English from the University of
Idaho in 1969; and, in 1975, he was awarded a Ph.D. in English
from Texas A&M University, where he specialized in American
literature and seventeenth-century British literature.
Dr. Djos taught high school and community college from
1961 to 1975; and, in 1976, he accepted a professorship at Mesa
State College in western Colorado where he taught modern
American literature and seventeenth-century British literature
for the next thirty years. He retired as a Professor Emeritus of
English in 2007. Dr. and Mrs. Jeanine Djos now live in the
mountains of western Colorado where they built a high country
chalet to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary.
Dr. Djos has published on a variety of subjects, including the
literature of addiction and American alcoholic writers. He has
also free-lanced for a variety of major national publications,
and his sailing book, Fixing Positions: Trailer Sailing the West
(Sheridan House, 2008) has been well received and is available
at most major retail outlets.
The Djoses have three daughters, who live in Grand Junction,
Colorado, with their families.