27529 Intoxication and Dispossession in Colonialism

Manhattan, according to one folk etymology, means “the place at which we were drunk.” Supposedly the Lenape (Delaware) people named the island after their “general intoxication,” in 1609, on wine and aqua vitae offered by the English explorer Henry Hudson. That derivation, though false, nonetheless puts drunkenness intriguingly close to the center of an originary colonial encounter. In this course, students will examine how such scenes were reiterated, transformed, and exploited throughout the 19th century. As we move along these historical itineraries, we will ask how toxic ideology distills and reinforces logics of racial dispossession. But we will also ask how intoxication opens onto altered states, draws out chronic conditions, and expands repertoires of conviviality. Our readings will weave between multiple genres in pursuit of these questions. Juxtaposing antiquarian files and execution sermons, medical inquiries and autobiographies, bureaucratic reports and romantic episodes, we will retrace scenes of intoxication through the texts, images, and institutions that configured them over time.

Matt Boulette
2019-2020 Spring