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Trance and Transfiguration in Rock Art and Literature by Richard Alan Northover (Hardback)
£145.00
Available
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781041011255
Published:
25 Aug 2025
Format:
Hardback
Number of pages:
104 pages
Dimensions:
216mm
Weight:
0.000kgs
Author:
This book explores the relationship between altered states of consciousness and their influence on art, literature, archaeology, and religion. The essays and responses in this collection provide a range of perspectives on how these states have the power to move people profoundly and to inspire artistic creativity.
The book is a largely unprecedented inter-disciplinary collaboration between archaeology, anthropology, and literary studies, although it touches on philosophy and religious studies, too. It explores the creative ways that altered states of consciousness play in culture and the arts, whether these states are induced though rituals like the trance dance or meditation, or through the consumption of mindenhancing substances.The author explores altered states of consciousness present in select Anglophone literature illuminated by archaeological research on trance states in relation to rock art. This specifically concerns the shamanistic theory of David Lewis-Williams.In response to Northover, Wayne Stables relates it to the Western philosophical tradition, seeing altered states and the loss of the sense of self that these usually involve as a critique of Western individualism. Contributions by David Whitley and Francis Thackeray are primarily concerned with the creative role that mind-altering substances play in culture. Also stepping into the conversation, Dan Wylie's reflections are critical, even sceptical, about the use of psychedelics and opiates for recreational, religious and creative purposes. Wylie's references to Southern African literature complements Whitley's discussion of North American texts and Northover's focus on Anglophone literature.Overall, the book creates by way of multiple perspectives a multivoiced dialogue on the currently highly debated topic of the use of mind-enhancing substances and techniques in art, culture, therapyand religion. In addition to the more academic material, blogs written by two of the authors are included to contextualise and broaden the discussion. This aligns with the book's multivocal and multimodal spirit.Print editions not for sale in Sub-Saharan Africa.
About the Author: Richard Alan Northover is Professor of general literary theory and critical theory in the Department of Afrikaans and Theory of Literature at the University of South Africa. His PhD, obtained at the University of Pretoria in 2010, concerns the work of J.M. Coetzee in relation to animal ethics. In addition to articles on the work of JM Coetzee, he has published on Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy and southern African rock art, both prehistoric and contemporary, placing his work in the fields of animal studies and ecocriticism. His inaugural lecture, delivered in 2023, was the point of departure of this book.
| Number of pages | 104 |
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