Losing Our Heads : : Beheadings in Literature and Culture / / Regina Janes.
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...
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Place / Publishing House: | New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2005] ©2005 |
Year of Publication: | 2005 |
Language: | English |
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Janes, Regina, author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut Losing Our Heads : Beheadings in Literature and Culture / Regina Janes. New York, NY : New York University Press, [2005] ©2005 1 online resource text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier text file PDF rda Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Prologue -- 1. Introduction to a Beheading -- 2. Bouncing Heads and Scaffold Dramas -- 3. Power to the People -- 4. At the Sign of the Baptist’s Head -- 5. African Heads and Imperial Décolletage -- 6. Epilogue -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec online access with authorization star 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. Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. In English. Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Jun 2022) Beheading in literature. Beheading History. Décapitation dans la littérature. Décapitation Histoire. Executions and executioners in art. Exécutions capitales dans l'art History. LITERARY CRITICISM / General. bisacsh Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013 9783110706444 print 9780814742693 https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814743614.001.0001 https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780814743614 Cover https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780814743614/original |
language |
English |
format |
eBook |
author |
Janes, Regina, Janes, Regina, |
spellingShingle |
Janes, Regina, Janes, Regina, Losing Our Heads : Beheadings in Literature and Culture / Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Prologue -- 1. Introduction to a Beheading -- 2. Bouncing Heads and Scaffold Dramas -- 3. Power to the People -- 4. At the Sign of the Baptist’s Head -- 5. African Heads and Imperial Décolletage -- 6. Epilogue -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author |
author_facet |
Janes, Regina, Janes, Regina, |
author_variant |
r j rj r j rj |
author_role |
VerfasserIn VerfasserIn |
author_sort |
Janes, Regina, |
title |
Losing Our Heads : Beheadings in Literature and Culture / |
title_sub |
Beheadings in Literature and Culture / |
title_full |
Losing Our Heads : Beheadings in Literature and Culture / Regina Janes. |
title_fullStr |
Losing Our Heads : Beheadings in Literature and Culture / Regina Janes. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Losing Our Heads : Beheadings in Literature and Culture / Regina Janes. |
title_auth |
Losing Our Heads : Beheadings in Literature and Culture / |
title_alt |
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Prologue -- 1. Introduction to a Beheading -- 2. Bouncing Heads and Scaffold Dramas -- 3. Power to the People -- 4. At the Sign of the Baptist’s Head -- 5. African Heads and Imperial Décolletage -- 6. Epilogue -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author |
title_new |
Losing Our Heads : |
title_sort |
losing our heads : beheadings in literature and culture / |
publisher |
New York University Press, |
publishDate |
2005 |
physical |
1 online resource |
contents |
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Prologue -- 1. Introduction to a Beheading -- 2. Bouncing Heads and Scaffold Dramas -- 3. Power to the People -- 4. At the Sign of the Baptist’s Head -- 5. African Heads and Imperial Décolletage -- 6. Epilogue -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author |
isbn |
9780814743614 9783110706444 9780814742693 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814743614.001.0001 https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780814743614 https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780814743614/original |
illustrated |
Not Illustrated |
dewey-hundreds |
300 - Social sciences |
dewey-tens |
300 - Social sciences, sociology & anthropology |
dewey-ones |
306 - Culture & institutions |
dewey-full |
306.9 |
dewey-sort |
3306.9 |
dewey-raw |
306.9 |
dewey-search |
306.9 |
doi_str_mv |
10.18574/nyu/9780814743614.001.0001 |
oclc_num |
608851020 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT janesregina losingourheadsbeheadingsinliteratureandculture |
status_str |
n |
ids_txt_mv |
(DE-B1597)548154 (OCoLC)608851020 |
carrierType_str_mv |
cr |
hierarchy_parent_title |
Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013 |
is_hierarchy_title |
Losing Our Heads : Beheadings in Literature and Culture / |
container_title |
Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013 |
_version_ |
1806143431128383488 |
fullrecord |
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