Psychedelia in Anglo-American Literature and Pop Culture After WWII

Psychedelia or chemical mind-expansion, frequently confused with narcotic intoxication, since the mid-20th century has provoked various controversies, being, at the same time, a vital source of artistic inspiration. It is this particular aspect that the present book concentrates upon, approaching psychedelia within the wider field of altered states of consciousness (encompassing also mystical and schizophrenic experiences). The phenomenon in question is presented here in historical perspective, from Romantics, through fin-de-siecle bohemians, modernists, Beats, Hippies, to the Rave Generation (Generation X). Innovative, mind-expandingly-, narcotically-, or mystically-informed works of literature (Blake, Burroughs), music (Coltrane, Hendrix), and film (Russell, Temple) are analyzed in a wide sociocultural context, with references to other European cultures (Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Hesse). The book offers a comprehensive, illuminating discussion of psychedelic influences in three aforementioned fields of art, being thus a truly pioneering attempt in this thematic area (considering that e. g. R. Masters and J. Houston's Psychedelic Art concentrated almost exclusively on painting).