LEADER 03597nam 22006015 450 001 9910790157303321 005 20230617034536.0 010 $a0-8147-4361-7 024 7 $a10.18574/9780814743614 035 $a(CKB)2670000000167772 035 $a(EBL)865568 035 $a(OCoLC)782877972 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000607403 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11385418 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000607403 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10584467 035 $a(PQKB)10147429 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC865568 035 $a(OCoLC)608851020 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse10727 035 $a(DE-B1597)548154 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780814743614 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000167772 100 $a20200723h20052005 fg 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurnn#---|un|u 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aLosing Our Heads $eBeheadings in Literature and Culture /$fRegina Janes 210 1$aNew York, NY :$cNew York University Press,$d[2005] 210 4$d©2005 215 $a1 online resource (273 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-8147-4270-X 311 0 $a0-8147-4269-6 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 197-241) and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tPreface --$tPrologue --$t1. Introduction to a Beheading --$t2. Bouncing Heads and Scaffold Dramas --$t3. Power to the People --$t4. At the Sign of the Baptist?s Head --$t5. African Heads and Imperial Décolletage --$t6. Epilogue --$tNotes --$tIndex --$tAbout the Author 330 $aWhat 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. 606 $aExecutions and executioners in art 606 $aBeheading in literature 606 $aBeheading$xHistory 615 0$aExecutions and executioners in art. 615 0$aBeheading in literature. 615 0$aBeheading$xHistory. 676 $a306.9 700 $aJanes$b Regina$4aut$4http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut$01550435 801 0$bDE-B1597 801 1$bDE-B1597 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910790157303321 996 $aLosing Our Heads$93809261 997 $aUNINA