Opium Dreams
Oxford Scholarship Online May 24, 2018 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190459116.003.0003 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that opium was significant to Romanticism through its connection to dreams, altered states, and Orientalism, as exemplified by De Quincey and Coleridge. |
Abstract
This chapter discusses the significance of opium during the early nineteenth-century and its relationship to Romanticism. While the chapter is organized around the influential work of Thomas De Quincey, particularly his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, it also discusses the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It discusses Romantic theories about the significance of dreams and their relationship to the understanding of induced altered states. Also, because the Romantics were interested in the geographical and cultural origins of opium, there is some discussion of the important relationship between drugs and Orientalism.