Re-enacting Les Paradies Artificiels by Re-mythologizing Inspiration

Felix Nicolau

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Be it in prose or be it in poetry, Charles Bukowski proposes anarchic protagonists, critical of the Establishment and absorbed in writing. Muses are plenty, but the real fuel for inspiration is alcohol, especially beer. Epic in poetry, abrupt in prose, Bukowski is unflinchingly honest and self-demythologizing. His hedonism and drunkenness are masks put on his revolt against the world and his own flaws. Undoubtedly, Bukowski is obsessed with writing his version about the macro-and micro-universe, but it is booze that flares his sincerity and resistance to compromise. Apart from his characters’ anti-hypocritical attitude, alcoholalso sentimentalizes them or boosts their frustrations. On a mythical level, drinking in Bukowski’s works functions both as a medieval magic filter and as a cartoon-like exhilarating potion. At the surprising intersection ofa more geometrico world with the postmodern realm, the subconscious blends with the superego’s projections into a drink-irrigated and peripheral cityscape inferno.
Original languageEnglish
Article number26
Pages (from-to)205 - 212
Number of pages8
JournalBAS: British and American Studies
Volume25
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2019 Jun 23
EventBAS – British and American Studies - West University of Timişoara, Timisoara, Romania
Duration: 2018 May 172018 May 19
https://litere.uvt.ro/conferinte/BAS/index.htm

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Specific Literatures

Free keywords

  • Poetics
  • Cultural studies
  • Bukowski
  • medievalism
  • Establishment

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