Trance and Transfiguration in Rock Art and Literature

This book explores the relationship between altered states of consciousness and their influence on art, literature, archaeology, and religion. The essays and responses in this collection provide a range of perspectives on how these states have the power to move people profoundly and to inspire artistic creativity.

List of contents

Contributors
Foreword
Introduction: Between Visionary and Mystical Experiences
Trance and Transfiguration in Rock Art and Literature
A World without Selves: A Reply to Richard Alan Northover's Lecture
John Taylor (1620) and the Shakespeare-Hemp-Cannabis Hypothesis: Was the "Noted Weed" a Source of Inspiration for Creativity ("Invention")?
Sceptical Reflections on Hallucinogens and Other Worlds
Conclusion: Trance, Healing and Transgression
Additional Material: Five Blogs and a Critical Reading
Critical Diaries
Blog 1: No 116 - Where's the Zol in Our Literature?
Ethicalanimal
Blog 2: Newgrange, Ireland: Neolithic Spirituality
Blog 3: Otherworldly Termites
Blog 4: Embodied Metaphors in Shamanic Art
Blog 5: The Axis Mundi, Shamanism and Trance States
Critical Reading
Altered States of Consciousness in Kim Stanley Robinson's Shaman (2013)
Index

About the author

Richard Alan Northover is a Professor of general literary theory and critical theory in the Department of Afrikaans and Theory of Literature at the University of South Africa. His PhD, obtained at the University of Pretoria in 2010, concerns the work of J.M. Coetzee in relation to animal ethics. In addition to articles on the work of JM Coetzee, he has published on Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy and southern African rock art, both prehistoric and contemporary, placing his work in the fields of animal studies and ecocriticism. His inaugural lecture, delivered in 2023, was the point of departure of this book.

Product details

• Authors: Richard Alan Northover
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 24.06.2025
• EAN: 9781041011255
• ISBN: 978-1-0-4101125-5
• No. of pages: 104
• Series: Routledge/UNISA Press Series
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); Cultural Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Regional Studies, Africa, LITERARY CRITICISM / African, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Literature & literary studies, Regional Studies, Philosophy: aesthetics, Social and cultural anthropology, Regional / International studies, Biography, Literature and Literary studies