Losing Our Heads: Beheadings in Literature and Culture

by Regina Janes

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814742696
• ISBN13: 9780814742693
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 255 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"