Informed by a provocative exhibition at the Louvre curated by the author; The Severed Head unpacks artistic representations of severed heads from the Paleolithic period to the present. Surveying paintings; sculptures; and drawings; Julia Kristeva turns her famed critical eye to a study of the head as symbol and metaphor; as religious object and physical fact; further developing a critical theme in her work--the power of horror--and the potential for the face to provide an experience of the sacred.Kristeva considers the head as icon; artifact; and locus of thought; seeking a keener understanding of the violence and desire that drives us to sever; and in some cases keep; such a potent object. Her study stretches all the way back to 6;000 B.C.E.; with humansrsquo; early decoration and worship of skulls; and follows with the Medusa myth; the mandylion of Laon (a holy relic in which the face of a saint appears on a piece of cloth); the biblical story of John the Baptist and his counterpart; Salome; tales of the guillotine; modern murder mysteries; and even the rhetoric surrounding the fight for and against capital punishment. Kristeva interprets these “capital visionsrdquo; through the lens of psychoanalysis; drawing infinite connections between their manifestation and sacred experience and very much affirming the possibility of the sacred; even in an era of "faceless" interaction.
#149511 in eBooks 2004-06-01 2004-06-01File Name: B006LG2MBM
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