Journal article
World of Possibilities: Agency in Female Drug Literature
Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, Vol.62(1), pp.48-54
2015
Abstract
Literature's ability to provide a different repertoire of experience from those presented in other discursive frameworks and institutions situates it as a unique force in the function of 'worldmaking.' Drawing on Bakhtinian notions of literary discourse and the carnivalesque, this article examines the subversive nature of drug literature to create 'a world inside out.' Within drug literature, rules are inverted, authority mocked, the non-conformists are centre stage, and the 'world' is perceived and reconstructed via them. A comparative analysis of male and female drug literature in the works of William S. Burroughs and Anna Kavan also reveals the implication of gender on literary worlds. Burroughs' 'world' is one that Timothy Melley suggests is 'a hostile place full of controlling agents.' The world created in Kavan's texts, however, is one of possibilities where, through the trope of drug use, the female protagonist is freed from gender and other societal constraints.
Details
- Title
- World of Possibilities: Agency in Female Drug Literature
- Authors
- Nycole Prowse (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts and Business
- Publication details
- Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, Vol.62(1), pp.48-54
- Publisher
- Maney Publishing
- Date published
- 2015
- DOI
- 10.1179/2051285615Z.00000000048
- ISSN
- 2051-2856
- Organisation Unit
- School of Business and Creative Industries; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Creative Industries - Legacy
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99449833102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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