Addiction in American Literature 3301-LA2227
The course opens with an introduction of fundamental theoretical concepts in addiction studies and historical discourses on the use of drugs and alcohol in the US. On the basis of historical texts, we will discuss the shift from the religious concept of intemperance as sin to the medical notion of addiction and the relationship between gender, racial, and class identity and alcohol and drug use. The reading list features selected works of American literature that focus on intemperance as well as alcohol and narcotics, spanning from the 1840s to the present. When discussing the texts, we will examine both their formal aspect as well as their relation to the historical context.
1. Introduction.
2. American temperance movements.
3. Temperance literature.
4. Alcohol and naturalist fiction.
5. Prohibition and the Lost Generation.
6. The Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance.
7. Drug use and the Beat Generation.
8. Drug use and the Black Arts Movement.
9. Blaxploitation and Urban Fiction.
10. Post-countercultural works of the 1970s.
11. Alcohol in Native American Literature.
12. Drug use in Native American Literature.
Education at language level B2+.
Course coordinators
Type of course
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
Students will have in-depth familiarity with:
K_W01 advanced terminology, theory and research methods corresponding to the state of the art in the discipline of culture and region studies, especially related to the topic of representations of addiction
Abilities
Students will be able to:
K_U01 apply the advanced terminology, theories and research methods of culture and religion studies to solve complex and original research problems , related to the topic of representations of addiction
K_U04 apply the concepts and principles of intellectual property protection and copyright law
Social competences
Students will be ready to:
K_K01 critically appraise their knowledge and content obtained from various sources
K_K02 recognize the importance of knowledge in solving cognitive and practical problems; consult experts when required
Assessment criteria
Assessment methods and criteria for this course
Requirements:
Continuous assessment (class preparation and participation): 50%
Final test: 50%
Attendance: no more than 3 absences allowed
Make-up test: oral or written in the instructor's office hours.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the classroom is governed by the rules set forth in Resolution No. 16 of the Teaching Council for the programs English Studies, English Studies – Linguistics, and English Studies – Literature and Culture of 9 December 2025
https://ia.uw.edu.pl/fileadmin/ilustracje/dokumenty/2026/RD_IA_2025_UCHWALA_nr16_narzedzia_AI_nowelizacja_ZAL2_EN.pdf
Bibliography
Alexie, Sherman. The Alcoholic Love Poems. 1994.
Arthur, Timothy Shay. Ten Nights in a Bar-room and What I Saw There. 1854.
Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” 1957.
Burroughs, William S. Naked Lunch.1962.
Cain, George. Blueschild Baby. 1970.
Crane, Stephen. George’s Mother. 1896.
Dunbar, Paul. The Sport of Gods. 1901.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender is the Night. 1934.
Hemingway, Ernest. Selected short-stories.
London, Jack. John Barleycorn. 1913.
Sanchez, Sonia. Selected poems.
Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. 1971.
Thurman, Wallace. Infants of the Spring. 1929.
Whitman, Walt. Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate. 1842.
Barr, Andrew. Drink: A Social History of America. Darby, Pennsylvania: Diane Publishing Company, 1999.
Bloom, Harold, ed. American Naturalism. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2004.
Crowley, John William. The White Logic: Alcoholism and Gender in American Modernist Fiction. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994.
Epstein, Barbara Leslie. The Politics of Domesticity: Women, Evangelism, and Temperance in Nineteenth-Century America. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1981.
Fleissner, Jennifer L. Women, Compulsion, Modernity: The Moment of American Naturalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Fletcher, Holly Berkley. Gender and the American Temperance Movement of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Routledge, 2007.
Foreman, Pier Gabrielle. Activist Sentiments: Reading Black Women in the Nineteenth Century. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009.
Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Pantheon, 1965.
Frick, John W. Theatre, Culture and Temperance Reform in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Lerner, Michael A. Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Levine, Harry Gene. Demon of the Middle Class: Self-Control, Liquor, and the Ideology of Temperance in the 19th-Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
Lilienfeld, Jane, and Jeffrey Thomas Oxford. The Languages of Addiction. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. Domesticating Drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America, 1870-1940. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
Parsons, Elaine Frantz. Manhood Lost: Fallen Drunkards and Redeeming Women in the Nineteenth-Century United States. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Tracy, Sarah W. Alcoholism in America: From Reconstruction to Prohibition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.