Download or read book Tales of a Severed Head written by Rachida Madani and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-09 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant retelling of the classic Arab tale of Scheherazade, set in the present day

Download or read book The Severed Head written by Julia Kristeva and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned philosopher and cultural theorist Kristeva (Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection) offers an extended consideration of artistic figurations of the severed head, the organizing theme to an exhibition she coordinated at the Louvre in 1998. Though she follows a single historical trajectory, moving from Paleolithic skull cults to antique Greek sculpture to the Surrealist drawings, Kristeva eschews the disciplinary constraints of art history, instead employing psychoanalysis to explore the intertwined problems of representation and mortality posed by the severed head. For Kristeva, the capacity to figure the life of the mind first requires a confrontation with this horrific object that stands at the boundary between life and death, registering not only the loss of corporeal form but also subjective interiority. Though this book does not engage with recent images of decapitation, it is not without contemporary political-cultural import; for Kristeva, these cruel artistic figurations offer us the capacity to contemplate the sacred within a technology-driven contemporary visual culture. Verdict While a challenging text, this beautifully written and richly layered meditation on mortality and representation will undoubtedly appeal to those readers interested in semiotic and psychoanalytically informed readings of art.-Jonathan Patkowski, CUNY Graduate Ctr.(c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Download or read book Severed written by Frances Larson and published by Granta Books. This book was released on 2014-11-06 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our history is littered with heads. Over the centuries, they have decorated our churches, festooned our city walls and filled our museums; they have been props for artists and specimens for laboratory scientists, trophies for soldiers and items of barter. Today, as videos of decapitations circulate online and cryonicists promise that our heads may one day live on without our bodies, the severed head is as contentious and compelling as ever. From shrunken heads to trophies of war; from memento mori to Damien Hirst's With Dead Head; from grave-robbing phrenologists to enterprising scientists, Larson explores the bizarre, often gruesome and confounding history of the severed head. Its story is our story.

Download or read book Irish Folk Tales written by Henry Glassie and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2012-09-19 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here are 125 magnificent folktales collected from anthologies and journals published from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Beginning with tales of the ancient times and continuing through the arrival of the saints in Ireland in the fifth century, the periods of war and family, the Literary Revival championed by William Butler Yeats, and the contemporary era, these robust and funny, sorrowful and heroic stories of kings, ghosts, fairies, treasures, enchanted nature, and witchcraft are set in cities, villages, fields, and forests from the wild western coast to the modern streets of Dublin and Belfast. Edited by Henry Glassie With black-and-white illustrations throughout Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

Download or read book Assembly of the Severed Head written by Hugh Lupton and published by . This book was released on 2018-06 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Severed A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found written by Frances Larson and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-11-17 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “wide-ranging and thoughtful” (Wall Street Journal) exploration of the varied obsessions that the “civilized West” has had with decapitated heads and skulls. The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain, and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute and connects our inner selves to the outer world. Yet there is a dark side to the head’s preeminence, one that has, in the course of human history, manifested itself in everything from decapitation to headhunting. So explains anthropologist Frances Larson in this fascinating history of decapitated human heads. From the Western collectors whose demand for shrunken heads spurred massacres to Second World War soldiers who sent the remains of the Japanese home to their girlfriends, from Madame Tussaud modeling the guillotined head of Robespierre to Damien Hirst photographing decapitated heads in city morgues, from grave-robbing phrenologists to skull-obsessed scientists, Larson explores our macabre fixation with severed heads.

Download or read book Manga Yokai Stories written by Lafcadio Hearn and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thrilling collection of seven Japanese ghost stories will captivate lovers of yokai stories! These classic Japanese ghost stories are based on those written by famed author Lafcadio Hearn between 1890 and 1904. Here, they are retold by award-winning comic book writer Sean Michael Wilson, who has garnered a worldwide fan base for his manga adaptations of works of Japanese literature, including such classics as The Book of Five Rings and The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts. Manga Yokai Stories includes: Nuke-kubi: A masterless samurai is trapped in a house haunted by headless goblins The Screen Maiden: A young man develops an obsession with a woman in a painting that almost kills him Corpse Rider: A woman's unburied corpse cannot rest until she has taken her revenge on the man who divorced her A Dead Secret: A young mother terrifies her family when she returns as a ghost, unable to find peace until she puts to rest a shocking secret she has left behind Wilson's skillful adaptation of Hearn's ghostly tales--along with superb manga illustrations from UK-based Japanese artist Inko Ai Takita--make these fascinating stories come to life. This book is in traditional Japanese reading order--from back to front--so that fans and manga lovers can enjoy an authentic reading experience.

Download or read book Heads Will Roll written by Larissa Tracy and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-01-20 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capitalizing upon the enduring fascination with decapitation in European culture, this collection examines--through a variety of critical lenses--the recurring "roles/rolls" of severed human heads in the medieval and early modern imagination.

Download or read book The Severed Head written by Julia Kristeva and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 humans' 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 visions" 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.

Download or read book Basketful of Heads written by Joe Hill and published by DC Comics. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joe Hill, the horror mastermind behind NOS4A2 and Locke & Key, arrives at DC with the twisted tale of June Branch-trapped with four cunning criminals who have snatched her boyfriend for deranged reasons of their own. Now she must fight for her life with the help of an impossible 8th-century Viking axe that can pass through a man’s neck in a single swipe-and leave the severed head still conscious and capable of supernatural speech. Each disembodied head has a malevolent story of its own to tell, and it isn’t long before June finds herself in a desperate struggle to hack through their lies and manipulations...racing to save the man she loves before time runs out. But is June Branch a woman fighting for her life-or a deranged axe murderer with a basketful of paranoid fantasies? The truth is even more horrifying than a basketful of heads. Collects Basketful of Heads #1-7.

Download or read book The Severed Hand written by Wilhelm Hauff and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-09-16 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Severed Hand" (From "German Tales" Published by the American Publishers' Corporation) by Wilhelm Hauff. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Download or read book The Severed Thread written by Leslie Vedder and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2024-01-02 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Which threads of fate will hold—and which will break? Clever, bookish Fi and her brash, ax-wielding partner Shane are back in this action-packed sequel to the bestselling The Bone Spindle, the gender-flipped Sleeping Beauty retelling, perfect for fans of Sorcery of Thorns and The Cruel Prince. Now in paperback! Fi has awakened the sleeping prince, but the battle for Andar is far from over. The Spindle Witch, the Witch Hunters, and Fi’s own Butterfly Curse all stand between them and happily ever after. Shane has her partner’s back. But she’s in for the fight of her life against Red, the right hand of the Spindle Witch who she’s also, foolishly, hellbent on saving. Briar Rose would do anything to restore his kingdom. But there’s a darkness creeping inside him—a sinister bond to the Spindle Witch he can’t escape. All hopes of restoring Andar rest on deciphering a mysterious book code, finding the hidden city of the last Witches, and uncovering a secret lost for centuries—one that just might hold the key to the Spindle Witch’s defeat. If they can all survive that long… Set in a world of twisted fairytales, The Severed Thread combines lost ruins, ride-or-die friendships, and heart-pounding romance.

Download or read book Thousand and One Ghosts written by Alexandre Dumas and published by Alma Books. This book was released on 2019-01-23 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coming back into town after a hunting expedition, Alexandre Dumas witnesses an incredible scene: a man has come to hand himself in to the mayor after decapitating his wife, terrified by the fact that her severed head spoke to him even after her death. This prompts the guests at a dinner Dumas attends later that evening to exchange stories of death and the supernatural, ranging from accounts of the guillotine during the Terror to tales of vampires and fratricide in the Carpathians.The Thousand and One Ghosts - here presented in its first and only translation into English - is a gloriously macabre work by the celebrated author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, which also touches on the serious political issue of capital punishment.

Download or read book The Head of Mimir written by Richard Lee Byers and published by Aconyte. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The young Heimdall must undertake a mighty quest to save Odin – and all of Asgard – in the first heroic fantasy novel set in Marvel’s incredible Legends of Asgard It is a dark time for Asgard. The All-Father is trapped in a bewitched Odinsleep, inspiring an all-out assault from the Frost Giants. They evade the gods’ defenses with uncommon ease, as if guided by augury. Heimdall, a quick-witted young warrior still finding his place amongst Asgard’s defenders, believes it no coincidence that Odin lies enchanted and that the Giants are so well-informed. Sneaking into Odin’s inner chambers, he discovers that the severed head of Mimir, a great source of wisdom, is missing. Accompanied by his sister, Lady Sif, Heimdall must quest across the Nine Realms to retrieve it, lest mighty Asgard fall.

Download or read book On Writing Horror written by Mort Castle and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-11-18 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The masters of horror have united to teach you the secrets of success in the scariest genre of all! In On Writing Horror, Second Edition, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Harlan Ellison, David Morrell, Jack Ketchum, and many others tell you everything you need to know to successfully write and publish horror novels and short stories. Edited by the Horror Writers Association (HWA), a worldwide organization of writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting dark literature, On Writing Horror includes exclusive information and guidance from 58 of the biggest names in horror writing to give you the inspiration you need to start scaring and exciting readers and editors. You'll discover comprehensive instruction such as: • The art of crafting visceral violence, from Jack Ketchum • Why horror classics like Dracula, The Exorcist, and Hell House are as scary as ever, from Robert Weinberg • Tips for avoiding one of the biggest death knells in horror writing—predicable clichés—from Ramsey Campbell • How to use character and setting to stretch the limits of credibility, from Mort Castle With On Writing Horror, you can unlock the mystery surrounding classic horror traditions, revel in the art and craft of writing horror, and find out exactly where the genre is going next. Learn from the best, and you could be the next best-selling author keeping readers up all night long.

Download or read book Like You d Understand Anyway written by Jim Shepard and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-11-19 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following his widely acclaimed Project X and Love and Hydrogen—“Here is the effect of these two books,” wrote the Chicago Tribune: “A reader finishes them buzzing with awe”—Jim Shepard now gives us his first entirely new collection in more than a decade. Like You’d Understand, Anyway reaches from Chernobyl to Bridgeport, with a host of narrators only Shepard could bring to pitch-perfect life. Among them: a middle-aged Aeschylus taking his place at Marathon, still vying for parental approval. A maddeningly indefatigable Victorian explorer hauling his expedition, whaleboat and all, through the Great Australian Desert in midsummer. The first woman in space and her cosmonaut lover, caught in the star-crossed orbits of their joint mission. Two Texas high school football players at the top of their food chain, soliciting their fathers’ attention by leveling everything before them on the field. And the rational and compassionate chief executioner of Paris, whose occupation, during the height of the Terror, eats away at all he holds dear. Brimming with irony, compassion, and withering humor, these eleven stories are at once eerily pertinent and dazzlingly exotic, and they showcase the work of a protean, prodigiously gifted writer at the height of his form. Reading Jim Shepard, according to Michael Chabon, “is like encountering our national literature in microcosm.”

Download or read book In a Dark Dark Room and Other Scary Stories written by Alvin Schwartz and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1985-10-02 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creak... Crash... BOO! Shivering skeletons, ghostly pirates, chattering corpses, and haunted graveyards...all to chill your bones! Share these seven spine-tingling stories in a dark, dark room.