Losing Our Heads - Beheadings in Literature and Culture

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All ProductsApparelBabyBeautyBooksClassical MusicDVDDigital MusicElectronicsGourmet FoodHealth & Personal CareJewelryKitchen & HousewaresMagazinesMiscellaneousMusicMusic TracksMusical InstrumentsOffice ProductsOutdoor LivingPC HardwarePet SuppliesPhotoRestaurantsSoftwareSporting GoodsTools & HardwareToysVHSVideo (DVD & VHS)Video GamesWirelessWireless Accessories    by: Regina Janes See Larger Image Amazon.com's Price: $65.00 Prices subject to change. Used Price: $86.46 Third Party New Price: $65.00 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 306.9 EAN: 9780814742693 ISBN: 0814742696 Label: NYU Press Manufacturer: NYU Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 272 Publication Date: August 01, 2005 Publisher: NYU Press Release Date: August 01, 2005 Sales Rank: 3201076 Studio: NYU Press Editorial Review: Product Description: View the Table of Contents. Read the Prologue. "Why are beheadings so captivating in society and literature? Losing Our Heads: Beheadings In Literature And Culture tackles a gruesome topic, providing a healthy dose of anthropological, medical, social and literary insight to accounts of beheadings from antiquity to modern times." —Bookwatch "To read Losing Our Heads is to experience that same frisson Regina Janes ascribes to the guillotine—a powerful and seductive and (excuse me) heady combination of gossip and scholarship." —Kathryn Davis, author of Versailles What is the fascination that decollation holds for us, as individuals and as a culture? Why does the idea make us laugh and the act make us close our eyes? Losing Our Heads explores in both artistic and cultural contexts the role of the chopped-off head. It asks why the practice of decapitation was once so widespread, why it has diminished—but not, as scenes from contemporary Iraq show, completely disappeared—and why we find it so peculiarly repulsive that we use it as a principal marker to separate ourselves from a more “barbaric” or “primitive” past? Although the topic is grim, Regina Janes’s treatment and conclusions are neither grisly nor gruesome, but continuously instructive about the ironies of humanity’s cultural nature. Bringing to bear an array of evidence, the book argues that the human ability to create meaning from the body motivates the practice of decapitation, its diminution, the impossibility of its extirpation, and its continuing fascination. Ranging from antiquity to the late nineteenth-century passion for Salomé and John the Baptist, and from the enlightenment to postcolonial Africa’s challenge to the severed head as sign of barbarism, Losing Our Heads opens new areas of investigation, enabling readers to understand the shock of decapitation and to see the value in moving past shock to analysis. Written with penetrating wit and featuring striking illustrations, it is sure to captivate anyone interested in his or her head. Customer Reviews Average Rating: Rating: - A healthy dose of anthropological, medical, social and literary insight to accounts of beheadings from antiquity to modern times Why are beheadings so captivating in society and literature? Losing Our Heads: Beheadings In Literature And Culture tackles a gruesome topic, providing a healthy dose of anthropological, medical, social and literary insight to accounts of beheadings from antiquity to modern times. College-level audiences will welcome Professor Janes' studies analysis of decapitation over history and in literature. One would anticipate gruesome details; but the focus on more than physical details makes for an intriguing ... Read More Rating: - A healthy dose of anthropological, medical, social and literary insight to accounts of beheadings from antiquity to modern times Why are beheadings so captivating in society and literature? Losing Our Heads: Beheadings In Literature And Culture tackles a gruesome topic, providing a healthy dose of anthropological, medical, social and literary insight to accounts of beheadings from antiquity to modern times. College-level audiences will welcome Professor Janes' studies analysis of decapitation over history and in literature. One would anticipate gruesome details; but the focus on more than physical details makes for an intriguing ... Read More Browse for similar items by category: Death & Grief - Health, Mind & Body - Subjects - Books - Grief & Bereavement History & Criticism - United States - World Literature - Literature & Fiction - Subjects - Books - Literary Theory Books & Reading - Literature & Fiction - Subjects - Books - Reference Criticism & Theory Feminist

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