Tomáš Glanc: Psychedelic Poetics in Russia
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: March 12, 2015, 20:00 – 22:00
Altered states of consciousness were a subject of fascination for representatives of Russian Symbolism at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, or even earlier if we consider the significant role of opiates in the spiritual life of Anna Karenina from Tolstoy’s novel. Mikhail Bulgakov was another literary figure who masterfully described how the regular intake of morphine could turn reality on its head.
The psychedelic perspective is becoming of one of the most important narrative strategies in contemporary prose, as evinced by the work of writers in Czech translation: Vladimir Sorokin, Viktor Pelevin, Pavel Peppershtejn. Sorokin’s most recent novel Telurie, predicting a separatist local war in Europe, even takes its title from a reality-altering drug.
The second evening in Tomáš Glanc’s (Universität Zürich) lecture series Living Souls: Current Russian Culture and its Czech Connections.