Altered States of Consciousness and Literature Doctoral Workshop
With the support of the English Department (UNIL) and CUSO English Doctoral School
Date: June 5-7, 2024. Venue: Crêt-Bérard, Vaud
The subject of this conference and doctoral school workshop is the relationship between literature and the cognitive conditions known as “altered states of consciousness” with a special focus on medieval literature and American counterculture (19th and 20th century).
While we currently tend to associate literacy with rationalization and modernity, and we oppose the cognitive pleasures of reading to the visceral experiences of visual culture, this doctoral school would like to focus on the other face of the writer: that of the poet as visionary and as explorer and mediator between other worlds and our own. In some cases, the author conducts experiments upon him- or herself in order to acquire knowledge that is inaccessible by other means. In the medieval period, sleep deprivation, fasting, controlled breathing and other psychological or biological means provided access to esoteric dimensions that the writer-subject decoded according to a certain cognitive grid and cultural context which helped in making meaning of the experience. Other medieval and modern means of gaining access to this dimension may be unsolicited, for instance as a result of physical and/or mental disorder. In yet other cases, the writer figures him or herself as either victim or passive receiver of knowledge that he or she has not sought out and for which writing serves as a purgation or relief. In the most interesting examples, the subject seeks out non-ordinary states of consciousness for exploratory or/or spiritual purposes.
After the Middle Ages, literature once more assumed an unprecedented intimacy and connection with altered states of consciousness during Romanticism, which excelled in the literary transcription and celebration of non-rational subjective states. Not only did the Romantics link creativity to notions of inspiration, enthusiasm, rapture and drunkenness, they established the enduring perception that altered states are inherently aesthetic insofar as they are defamiliarizing and constitute a form of mental play. American literature offers many examples, including entire artistic movements (inherently countercultural) characterized by an interest in linking writing with alternative forms of knowing and consciousness, e.g. Transcendentalism, the Gothic, the Beats and the psychedelic revolution in the 1960s.
Currently, there is a ‘second psychedelic revolution’ underway in psychiatric research and more generally in Western culture, as previously controlled substances are being decriminalized and the therapeutic and personal growth potential of medicines like MDMA, psilocybin, DMT-5MEO and LSD are becoming better known. Psychiatric pioneer Stanislaf Grof has called for a radical rethinking of psychiatry to include non-ordinary states of consciousness in our understanding of consciousness and the human psyche. Dr. Ansgar Rougement will also address these issues in his analysis of what ails us as a society now, especially in our denial and destruction of nature. The workshop will reflect on the possible impact of these developments on contemporary culture and literature.
This conference and doctoral school event will feature three invited speakers and two workshops (for doctoral students only). Our speakers include Juliana Dresvina (Cultural Historian at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of Oxford), Hermann Herlinghaus (Professor of Modern Literature and Latin American Studies, University of Freiburg-in-Breisgau) and also a local practitioner of psychedelic-assisted therapy, Dr. Ansgar Rougement.
PhD students from CUSO universities (Lausanne, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Fribourg, Bern) will have travel reimbursed and free meals and lodging at Crêt-Bérard.
Organizers:
Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet, Professor of American Literature
Denis Renevey, Professor of Medieval Literature
Juliette Vuille, MER in Medieval Literature
Plenary talks:
Wed, June 5, 13:30: Juliana Dresvina (Oxford): “Literary Alterity: three ways”
Wed, June 5, 16:45: Dr. Ansgar Rougemont-Bücking (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy based in Vevey), “The vampirocene – or the crises of consciousness of our epoch”
Thursday, June 6, 16:45: Hermann Herlinghaus (University of Freiburg-in-Breisgau): “Approaching Western Psychoactive Modernity”
Provisional program (including 12 student presentations)
June 5 Wednesday
9:30-10:00 shuttles from the Puidoux train station to Crêt-Bérard (more specific info on shuttle times to follow)
10:00-10:30 – coffee and arrival
10:30 -12:00 Introductions by participants, Denis and Agnieszka introduction and overview, breath workshop
12:30-13:30 lunch
13:30 -15:00 Keynote : Juliana Dresvina talk: “Literary Alterity: three ways (moving from psychology to mysticism to fantasy)”
15:00-15:30 coffee break
15:30-16:00 David Elmiger, “Rewriting the Psychedelic Story” (psychology PhD student, UNIBE)
16:00-16:30 Leonardo Perez (postdoc, Pierre de Bois Foundation for Current History), “The Second Psychedelic Revolution at the United Nations: Indigenous People’s Psychedelics at the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples EMRIP and the World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO”
16:30 – 16:45 break
16:45 – 18:15 Keynote: Dr. Ansgar Rougemont-Bücking, “The vampirocene – or the crises of consciousness of our epoch”
18:15 break before dinner
18:45 dinner
20:00 movie and/or campfire
Thursday June 6
7:30 breakfast
8:30 – 10:00 – Juliana Drasvina medieval workshop (PhD students only)
Readings for workshop, focusing on ‘Perpetua’s Passion’ (an introduction, the source text, and an interpretation) can be found below, at the end of the program.
10:00-10:30 coffee break
10:30 to 12:30 – 3 medieval student presentations:
10:30 – 11:00 Olena Danylovych, “Walter Hilton and Intention in Ascent”
11:00 – 11:30 Corinne Clark, “Drunk on God: exploring sensory intoxication in Middle English contemplative literature”
11:30 – 12:00 Mireille Le Berre, “The Dryness of Christ and the Shyness of Four.”
12:00 – 12:30 break before lunch
12:30 -13.30 lunch
13.30 – 14:00 Lorenzo Zaggia, “Stirred, not Shaken: The Quest for Spiritual Transformation in The Cloud of Unknowing”
14:00 – 14:30 Juliette Vuille, “Shape-shifting and animal-spirits in Old Icelandic sagas”
14:30 — 15:00 Roberto Biolzi, “War and drugs in the Scandinavian world: the case of the Berserker”
15:00 – 15:30 coffee break
15:30 — 16:00 Ana Rita Parreiras Reis , “Despair as an altered state of consciousness? Some clues from late-medieval guidance texts”
16:00– 16:30 Céline Magada, “Altered Judgment: Poison in Early Modern England”
16:30– 16:45 short break
16:45 – 18:15 Keynote: Hermann Herlinghaus talk: “Approaching Western Psychoactive Modernity”
18:45 dinner
20:00 sharing mind-altering music and poetry? “Thursday is Dance Day” – one hour dancing in the dark party & campfire
Friday June 7
7:30 breakfast
9:00 –10:00 – 3 student presentations:
8:30 – 9:00, Sara Khalili Jahromi, “An Altered Mind Wandering in Taziyeh’s Eternal Time.”
9:00 – 9:30, Jana Constantin, ‘Half sleep, half waking’: Hypnagogia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
9:30 – 10:00: Maxime Pellaton, “’Math, Not Even Once’: Altered States as an Aesthetic and Generic Strategy in H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Dreams in the Witch House’”
10:00- 10:30 – coffee break
10:30 to 12:00 – Hermann Herlinghaus modern literature workshop (PhD students only)
Readings for workshop: Huxley, Doors of Perception https://maps.org/images/pdf/books/HuxleyA1954TheDoorsOfPerception.pdf
Walter Benjamin, Hashish in Marseilles: https://langurbansociology.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/hashish-in-marseilles.pdf
12:30 – 13:30 lunch
13:30 – 15:00 – 3 Modern and Contemporary literature student presentations
13:30 Corey Heimlich, “Trap House Denizens in Breaking Bad”
14:00 Rob Green, “Remedies for Eco-Technological Catastrophe: Re-envisioning Psychedelics’ Potential for Helping Solve Today’s Challenges”
14:30 Nora Zufferey, “Low Frequencies and Spirit Possession in Jayne Cortez’s Jazz Poetry and Jean Binta Breeze’s Dub Poetry”
15:00-15:30 coffee break
15:30 –16:30 A round-robin (everyone says something) – closing the workshop
READINGS for Juliana Dresvina’s workshop on Thursday morning:
ABSTRACTS in alphabetical order
Robert Green, “Remedies for Eco-Technological Catastrophe:Re-envisioning Psychedelics’ Potential for Helping Solve Today’s Challenges”
Lorenzo Zaggia, Stirred, not Shaken: The Quest for Spiritual Transformation in The Cloud of Unknowing