The Hangover
What is a hangover? How does it feel to suffer from one? What can hangovers tell us about the way attitudes to alcohol have developed over time? Why have hangovers been neglected in our critical discussions of alcohol and intoxication in the humanities? This first scholarly study of the hangover in literature and culture sets out to answer each of these questions by exploring the representation of ‘the morning after’ in a wide variety of texts ranging from the Renaissance to the present day. The book argues that literature reveals hangovers are a cluster of physical symptoms, but also a complex interplay of sensations and emotions. It discloses the way that the hangover can be used to provide socio-cultural commentary, to impose value systems on drinkers and to control alcohol use. It demonstrates that the generic aspects of hangovers – nausea and headache, guilt and shame – are interpreted differently in different periods. The book demonstrates that, just as much as drunkenness or intoxication, the hangover has a cultural history that can be told through textual analysis.