The Pharmakon - Concept Figure, Image of Transgression, Poetic Practice

The ancient Greek semantic of "pharmakon" comprised at least three meanings - denoting a medicine, a poison, and/or a magic potion. This helps to uncover a non-dogmatic meaning of "drugs." A millenarian cultural history testifies to the ongoing need of communities and societies to actively use and deal with "pharmaka," prominently including mind-altering substances. However, Western modernity has complicated an unbiased approach to the pharmacological aspects of historical and social life by aggressively multiplying, and later restricting psychoactive substances. The present volume questions a logic of good vs. bad drugs as it discusses a wide semantic spectrum - the cultural, anthropological, aesthetic, and poetological scope of the "pharmakon." In order to critically resituate the concept, the book offers a glance into compelling scenarios, European, North American, Latin American, Transatlantic, and fascinating transdisciplinary perspectives.

Summary

The ancient Greek semantic of “pharmakon” comprised at least three meanings – denoting a medicine, a poison, and/or a magic potion. This helps to uncover a non-dogmatic meaning of “drugs.” A millenarian cultural history testifies to the ongoing need of communities and societies to actively use and deal with “pharmaka,” prominently including mind-altering substances. However, Western modernity has complicated an unbiased approach to the pharmacological aspects of historical and social life by aggressively multiplying, and later restricting psychoactive substances.

The present volume questions a logic of good vs. bad drugs as it discusses a wide semantic spectrum – the cultural, anthropological, aesthetic, and poetological scope of the “pharmakon.” In order to critically resituate the concept, the book offers a glance into compelling scenarios, European, North American, Latin American, Transatlantic, and fascinating transdisciplinary perspectives.

Product details

• Assisted by: Herman Herlinghaus (Editor), Hermann Herlinghaus (Editor)
• Publisher: Universitätsverlag Winter
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 08.05.2018
• EAN: 9783825367404
• ISBN: 978-3-8253-6740-4
• No. of pages: 392
• Dimensions: 143 mm x 216 mm x 28 mm
• Weight: 568 g
• Series: Beiträge zur Philosophie, Neue Folge; Beiträge zur Philosophie. Neue Folge
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > 20th and 21st centuries; Literatur, Philosophie, Droge, Gift, Europa, Medizin, Kulturwissenschaft, Baudelaire, Charles, Ekstase, Tabak, Affekt, Rausch, Gesellschaft und Kultur, allgemein, Nordamerika (USA und Kanada), Süd- und Zentralamerika (inklusive Mexiko), Lateinamerika, Gegenkultur, Überdosis, Transkulturalität, psychoaktive Substanzen, Minne, Apollinaire, Guillaume, höfische Liebe, Ortiz, Fernando, Burrough, William S., Cabrera Infante, Guillermo, Kulturpharmakologie, Kingston, Maxine Hong