Writing Under the Influence (PDF)

MATTS G. DJOS, Professor of English at Mesa State University, USA.

"Every ten or twenty years, it seems, there comes a literary critic whose work throws open a window and you suddenly see sharper images, clearer details, deeper shadows. And now comes Djos s Writing Under the Influence, probing the dusky corners of literary alcoholism. This is sociological literary criticism doing exactly what it should do: inconcise and important discussions, Professor Djos confronts his selected authors - Roethke, Hart Crane, Faulkner, E.E. Cummings, Ginsberg and more than a dozen others - and fearlessly focuses on the ways in which the 'alcoholic perspective' informs their work. I know I shall never again teach 'Mister Flood s Party' the same way after reading Djos, and the same goes for Tennessee Williams, Robert Lowell and the others. Writing Under the Influenceshould be on the reading list of every graduate program in American literature." - Dr. James C. Work, Professor Emeritus, Colorado State University

"Djos has written a compelling work that fulfills its promise by applying a systematic psychological focus to alcoholic literature. . . to explore some of the more puzzling facets of the addictive mind as set as reflected in the poems and stories of modern American writers. The result is an extraordinary work of literary criticism that illuminates the alcoholic personality, stripping away any romantic notions that both readers and his subjects may have about alcoholism." - Felicia Florine Campbell, Professor of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Editor, Popular Culture Review