This notice in two parts presents my work on absinthe as a poetic motif and especially as a plant dangerous to health. I recount how my interest in "the green fairy," in other words "the holy herb," came to me through one of my students from Val-Travers (in Switzerland) where there is now a museum. But it was in Auvers-sur-Oise, at the inn where Van Gogh spent his last days, that I first tasted the drink, long before its consumption was officially authorized in France, in 1988. Beyond the anecdote, absinthe remains a very important theme in modern and contemporary French literature, as can be judged from what follows.

Visit: Absinthe Museum

I. Angers Colloquium, 2001

Arlette Bouloumié, Writing and Illness, Paris, Imago, 2002, 352 p. Nietzsche and madness, Dostoevsky and epilepsy, Thomas Mann and tuberculosis, Baudelaire and syphilis, or closer to us, Hervé Guibert and AIDS. The names of great writers are often associated with the illness that consumed them, so true is it that genius seems to maintain a mysterious relationship with the destruction of the body. Based on examples from the 19th and 20th centuries, this work shows how many creators faced illness through writing, drawing from it a source of inspiration or confronting it through words. This captivating collection of cases sheds light on the confrontation between language and unspeakable pain, between the word and the forces of death, thus placing the search for the meaning of suffering at the very heart of literature.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface: Michel TOURNIER, Health, Soul and Body, p. 7 Introduction: Arlette BOULOUMIÉ, p. 11 Cyr VOISIN: Destiny of Illnesses and Literature, The Example of Tuberculosis, p. 15 Thierry ORFILA: The Image of Illness in Baudelaire 25 Henri BÉHAR: The Green Fairy or the Absinthe of Every Bouquet, p. 39 Iemie VAN DER PŒL: Between Satan and Charcot: the Imaginary of Hysteria in J.-K. Huysmans, p. 56 Pierre MICHEL: Octave Mirbeau and Hysteria, p. 71 Alain NÉRY: Sick and Loving Body in Rodenbach's Carillonneur, p. 85 Marc KOBER: On the Good Use of Medical Sight at the Opening of Venus, p. 93 Michael WORTON: Narration, Dialogue and Diagnosis: the Case of Alphonse Daudet, p. 107 Anne-Cécile POTTIER-THOBY: The Evil to Say: Julien Green Syphilophobe, p. 120 Claude HERZFELD: Grail and Phthisis in the Magic Mountain, p. 139 Jacques LEMARINEL: Illness as Initiation Journey in Siloé, by Paul Gadenne, p. 152 Chiwaki SHINODA: Blinding Flash of Death, at the Last Vision of Sick Poets, Kajii and Others, p. 164 Bruno BLANCKEMAN: Dying to the Text: on Some Narratives by Hervé Guibert, p. 178 Claude FOUCART: Harold Brodkey Facing AIDS, an Unmoored Raft, p. 186 Francis BERTHELOT: Symptom, Symbol and Strategy, p. 198 Juliette ROGERS: Medical Monsters: Women Doctors in Early 20th Century Literature, p. Isabelle MEURET: Feminine Writing: Literary Behavior Disorder, p. 219 Bruno FABRE: The Image of Illness in Marcel Schwob's Tales: From Terror to Pity, p. 231 Olivier PENOT-LACASSAGNE: Artaud: the Plague, p. 242 Joseph GARREAU: The Inscription of Illness in Catherine Pozzi "By the Pen Dances Freedom", p. 253 Carmen BOUSTANI: Rhetoric of Madness and Creation from Mrs Dalloway to The Waves by Virginia Woolf, p. 264 Arlette BOULOUMIÉ: Epilepsy in Dostoevsky's Work, p. 277 Lucien GUIRINGER: At the Risk of Madness, the Nietzschean Revelation of the Body's Wisdom, p. 288 Jean-Marie PAUL: Schopenhauer: the Illness of the Will to Live, p. 297 Philippe WALTER: Hector Berlioz and Melancholy, or the Aesthetics of the Pathological, p. 311 Jean ARROUYE: Pictorial Uses of Illness, p. 322 To conclude Georges CESBRON, p. 333

Download my contribution in PDF: The Green Fairy or the Absinthe of Every Bouquet

Download the notice in pdf to access the tables

II. Paris Colloquium 2012

Colloquium images

ALCOHOLS 16th Colloquium of the Invalides

November 16, 2012 9h Welcome of participants 9h15 Marie-Claude Delahaye: Absinthe on Posters Henri Béhar: The Green Fairy or the Absinthe of Every Bouquet Denis Saint-Amand: The Alcoholic Life of Zutism Jean-Paul Morel: Toxic Songs Alain Chevrier: Absinthe Monochromies Yves Thomas: Cultivated Palate at the Hour of Absinthe Alain Weil: Have you ever drunk vespetro, ladies? Elisabeth Chamontin: The Countess's Alcohol 10h 15 Coffee break Olivier Justafré: Alcohol Verses Philippe Di Folco: Is Truth Soluble in Alcohol? Eric Marty: Rimbaud. The Comedy of Thirst Marc Décimo: Stop the Alembic and the Pressure Cooker! Bruno Fuligni: Deputy Morlot, Hero of Picard Champagne at the Beverages Commission Daniel Ridge: Cocktail Fetishism among Some Literati Mathieu Lecoutre: The Inspired of the Gourd Daniel Zinszner: Exercise Found in a Bottle 12h – 14h Lunch 14h Benoit Noël: From Wynona Ryder to Dita von Teese David Christoffel: You Have to Drink It to Believe It Daniel Bougnoux: Oralities Alain Zalmanski: Let's Drink and Drink Pascal Durand: One Last Poe Julien Schuh: Was Jarry an "alcoholic"? Marc Zammit: Was Racine Alcoholic? Christophe Bourseiller: Carlos Castaneda, When Drugs Complete Alcohol Clément Carbonnier: The Distiller and the Tax Collector Anouck Cape: The Last Stage of Thirst Aude Fauvel: Alcoholic Poetics and Psychiatric Spirits Jacques Noizet: Hic et hoc 15h 15 Coffee break Daniel Aranjo: Vodka and Russian Literature Martine Lavaud: Under the Lens: the Writer Drinks Denis Mellier: John Ford: Big Mouth and Hangover Paul Schneebeli: The Melancholy of the Dipsomaniac Jean-Pierre Lassalle: Surrealist Alcohols Marc Dachy: Bar Nicanor Dominique Noguez: Cheers! Christian Biet: Blood Drinkers 16h: Round table and debate

Publication:

Colloquium of the Invalides (16th; 2012 Alcools: Sixteenth Colloquium of the Invalides, November 16, 2012 / texts collected by Jean-Jacques Lefrère and Michel Pierssens, Usson: du Lérot, 2013, vol. 270 p. ill. in black and color, ll. In the margin.

My intervention below: Colloquium of the Invalides, November 16, 2012

"The Holy Herb" or The Absinthe of Every Bouquet The announcement of this colloquium being illustrated with an absinthe drinker, I could not miss taking an option. However, in my haste to respond to the organizers, I had reused the title of an intervention made some time ago at the Angers colloquium on illnesses, collected in La Littérature et son golem II. It is obviously not a question of repeating here remarks already made in another venue. This is why I modify my title and will henceforth speak of "the holy herb," associating in the same bouquet two poets who knew how to appreciate each other, Jarry and Mallarmé. Today, I propose to take up a database that I had then constituted from the occurrences of the term in the TLF, from 1600 to the present day. The term is mainly concentrated in the 19th and 20th centuries, insofar as it designates the alcoholic beverage, spread by a firm from Pontarlier from 1805, until its prohibition by a law of March 16, 1915. This had led me to "read" about 200 literary texts, and to arrange the different uses in two large categories, according to whether they designated the plant or the liqueur, and, within these two classes, their specific use. Frantext Treatment In 274 French language works (today, Frantext indicates 598 occ. among 162 authors).

Classification of occurrences according to usage characteristics:

I. The Plant From 1773 to 1994, authors deal with the plant, which they identify by three main traits: bitterness/odor/color by its bitterness first (noted in the Bible). The term serves as support for images around sadness and misfortune, particularly in poetic discourse, from 1606 (Bertaux) until 1941 (Aragon, Le Crève-cœur). But it is also remarkable for its odor, whether in its natural state, in arid lands, or distilled and served at the tables of bistros. Finally, it is identified by its color so characteristic that it has been called "the green fairy." This trait being noted by storytellers (Vathek) and poets (Tzara) as well as by novelists (Montherlant, Cendrars, Modiano, Claude Simon), long after its official disappearance. Absinthe is used in various forms Extract, decoction, wine, as poultice, injection, enema Extract (in J.-J. Rousseau), wine (Mirabeau, Augustin Thierry), finally as decoction, whether as poultice, injection, or even enema. Double use: remedy, drink a) as remedy (Hugo, Goncourt, Huysmans, up to Jacques Lanzmann) And even as anesthetic! b) as drink, it invades the novel, of course, but also the diary and the essay.

II. Alcohol Since the theme of this day is alcohol, I will focus your attention on its Ritual Particular elaboration for an aperitif that became fashionable after the conquest of Algeria (where the elixir was part of the soldiers' kit), giving rise to a specific ritual that novelists describe and comment on: "You have your absinthe. It's about making it. It's not, believe me, as a vain people think, a small affair, you must not have your soul occupied elsewhere. First point. Now, demand first of all beautiful iced water, disdaining any other. Of lukewarm water, there must be none. Jupiter condemns it, and even at worst. It would be worth "beating" it with donkey piss... with all due respect." Raoul PONCHON, La Muse au cabaret, 1920, p. 198, THE INVALID WITH A HANGOVER.