Women and Alcohol Research Cluster is delighted to announce our next online seminar
“Researching 'Drunkenness, Compulsion and the Disintegration of the Self: Erasmus Darwin’s Theory of Ebrietas in the Writings of Maria Edgeworth.’”
It will take place on 10 November 2022 at 12.00 midday UK time online (zoom - link to be circulated)
(e-mail us dsnwomencluster@gmail.com to register)
dr Lucy Cogan (University of Galway) “Researching 'Drunkenness, Compulsion and the Disintegration of the Self: Erasmus Darwin’s Theory of Ebrietas in the Writings of Maria Edgeworth.’”
It has long been acknowledged that the depictions of debauched lords in Maria Edgeworth’s writings on the eighteenth-century Irish elite are soaked in references to alcohol. However, until now little attention has been paid to the distinctly medical understanding of the harms caused by alcohol that characterises these works. For the first time, this essay draws out the influence of Erasmus Darwin’s theory of ebrietas on Edgeworth’s portrayal of the issues surrounding alcohol among her class and considers how she adapts Darwin’s ideas to the Irish context, where concerns around drunkenness cut across charged ideas of sectarian identity, class and political power.
