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There is seventh heaven, there is sixth sense – and now there is Poetica 5 . At this year's Festival of World Literature, the invited authors are devoting themselves to heightened states of mind. There has always been a closeness between art and ecstasy, intoxication and ritual. People – including many artists – resort to substances that are not for nutrition; they become beside themselves. The Leipzig physician Louis Lewin, once the founder of "poison science", collected the means that served such purposes under the title Phantastica. Does literature belong to this category too? Is the word a fantastic doping agent, a successful line an expansion of consciousness? Eight authors are coming to the fifth Poetica to explore the topic of "intoxication" together with the curator of the festival, the writer Aris Fioretos. The focus will be on inspiration and artificial paradises, on flights of fancy, but also on the hardships of gravity. At the opening event in the auditorium of the University of Cologne, everyone will introduce themselves in conversations with the curator and through readings from their texts (in the respective original language and in German translation). The evening will be introduced by greetings from Monika Schausten (Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy) and Günter Blamberger (International College Morphomata). Afterwards, the University of Cologne will invite everyone to a reception. With the authors Mircea Cărtărescu (Romania), Oswald Egger (Germany), Christian Kracht (Switzerland), Mara Lee (Sweden), Agi Mishol (Israel), Lebogang Mashile (South Africa), Marion Poschmann (Germany) and Jo Shapcott (England) as well as the curator Aris Fioretos (Sweden). Reading and musical accompaniment for the evening will be provided by Nicola Gründel and Philipp Plessmann. Event on January 21, 2019.