The Aesthetics of Murder

The Aesthetics of Murder

Author: Joel Black

Publisher:

Published: 1991-09

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13:

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"What connects the Romantic essays of Thomas De Quincey and the violent cinema of Brian De Palma? Or the "beautiful" suicides of Hedda Gabler and Yukio Mishima? Or the shootings of John Lennon and Ronald Reagan? In The Aesthetics of Murder, Joel Black explores the sometimes gruesome interplay between life and art, between actual violence and images of violence in a variety of literary texts, paintings, and films. Rather than exclude murder from critical consideration by dismissing it as a crime, Black urges us to ponder the killer's artistic role -- and our own experience as audience, witness, or voyeur. Black examines murder as a recurring, obsessive theme in the Romantic tradition, approaching the subject from an aesthetic rather than a moral, psychological, or philosophical perspective. And he brings into his discussion contemporary instances of sensational murders and assassinations, treating these as mimetic or cathartic activities in their own right. Combining historical documentation with theoretical insights, Black shows that the possibilities of representing violence -- and of experiencing it -- as art were recognized early in the nineteenth century as logical extensions of Romantic theories of the sublime. Since then, both traditional art forms and the modern mass media have contributed to the growing aestheticization of daily experience -- including murder, suicide, and terrorism." -- Book cover.


Book Synopsis The Aesthetics of Murder by : Joel Black

Download or read book The Aesthetics of Murder written by Joel Black and published by . This book was released on 1991-09 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What connects the Romantic essays of Thomas De Quincey and the violent cinema of Brian De Palma? Or the "beautiful" suicides of Hedda Gabler and Yukio Mishima? Or the shootings of John Lennon and Ronald Reagan? In The Aesthetics of Murder, Joel Black explores the sometimes gruesome interplay between life and art, between actual violence and images of violence in a variety of literary texts, paintings, and films. Rather than exclude murder from critical consideration by dismissing it as a crime, Black urges us to ponder the killer's artistic role -- and our own experience as audience, witness, or voyeur. Black examines murder as a recurring, obsessive theme in the Romantic tradition, approaching the subject from an aesthetic rather than a moral, psychological, or philosophical perspective. And he brings into his discussion contemporary instances of sensational murders and assassinations, treating these as mimetic or cathartic activities in their own right. Combining historical documentation with theoretical insights, Black shows that the possibilities of representing violence -- and of experiencing it -- as art were recognized early in the nineteenth century as logical extensions of Romantic theories of the sublime. Since then, both traditional art forms and the modern mass media have contributed to the growing aestheticization of daily experience -- including murder, suicide, and terrorism." -- Book cover.

Murder in Our Midst

Murder in Our Midst

Author: Omer Bartov

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1996-02-29

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 0195344596

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War endlessly tries to mask itself. The myth of the heroic soldier testing his individual courage stands in stark contrast to the reality of mass, anonymous death and the suppression of individual actions. Murder in Our Midst shows that this fundamental tension reached its natural conclusion in the Holocaust, and that disguising it has required an ongoing effort to misrepresent war and the Holocaust as something other than industrial killing. Examining a broad range of the representations of war's horrors, from scholarly depictions to those in popular literature, poetry, art, and the movies, Omer Bartov finds they have some things in common. Societies and cultures have attempted to form coherent images of horrific events, to draw didactic lessons from them, and to exploit them to legitimate ideological or political positions. Made up of interconnected essays, this book is both a scholarly and an often personal and passionate examination of the emergence, implementation, and representation of industrial killing. Bartov draws out the links between recent revisionist attempts to minimize and deny the Holocaust, and Hollywood's ongoing fascination with National Socialism and Hitler's "Final Solution." Arguing that the modern predicament reflects the effects of the Nazi genocide on current perceptions of war, history, and memory, this book is a plea for compassion and commitment in an increasingly violent and indifferent world.


Book Synopsis Murder in Our Midst by : Omer Bartov

Download or read book Murder in Our Midst written by Omer Bartov and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1996-02-29 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War endlessly tries to mask itself. The myth of the heroic soldier testing his individual courage stands in stark contrast to the reality of mass, anonymous death and the suppression of individual actions. Murder in Our Midst shows that this fundamental tension reached its natural conclusion in the Holocaust, and that disguising it has required an ongoing effort to misrepresent war and the Holocaust as something other than industrial killing. Examining a broad range of the representations of war's horrors, from scholarly depictions to those in popular literature, poetry, art, and the movies, Omer Bartov finds they have some things in common. Societies and cultures have attempted to form coherent images of horrific events, to draw didactic lessons from them, and to exploit them to legitimate ideological or political positions. Made up of interconnected essays, this book is both a scholarly and an often personal and passionate examination of the emergence, implementation, and representation of industrial killing. Bartov draws out the links between recent revisionist attempts to minimize and deny the Holocaust, and Hollywood's ongoing fascination with National Socialism and Hitler's "Final Solution." Arguing that the modern predicament reflects the effects of the Nazi genocide on current perceptions of war, history, and memory, this book is a plea for compassion and commitment in an increasingly violent and indifferent world.

The Secret History

The Secret History

Author: Donna Tartt

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2011-10-19

Total Pages: 537

ISBN-13: 0307765695

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A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Goldfinch. Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality. “A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment.... Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.” —The New York Times


Book Synopsis The Secret History by : Donna Tartt

Download or read book The Secret History written by Donna Tartt and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-10-19 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Goldfinch. Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality. “A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment.... Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.” —The New York Times

Transgression and the Aesthetics of Evil

Transgression and the Aesthetics of Evil

Author: Taran Kang

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2021-11-01

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1487529090

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How do we perceive evil? How do we represent evil? In Transgression and the Aesthetics of Evil, Taran Kang examines the entanglements of aesthetics and morality. Investigating conceptions and images of evil, Kang identifies a fateful moment of transformation in the eighteenth century that continues to reverberate to the present day. Transgression, once allocated the central place in the constitution of evil, undergoes a startling revaluation in the Enlightenment and its aftermath, one that needs to be understood in relation to emergent ideas in the arts. Taran Kang engages with the writings of Edmund Burke, the Marquis de Sade, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Hannah Arendt, among others, as he questions recent calls to "de-aestheticize" evil and insists on a historically informed appreciation of evil’s aesthetic dimensions. Chapters consider the figure of the "evil genius," the paradoxical appeal of the grotesque and the disgusting, and the moral status of spectators who behold scenes of suffering and acts of transgression. In grappling with these issues, Transgression and the Aesthetics of Evil questions the feasibility and desirability of insulating the moral from the aesthetic.


Book Synopsis Transgression and the Aesthetics of Evil by : Taran Kang

Download or read book Transgression and the Aesthetics of Evil written by Taran Kang and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2021-11-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we perceive evil? How do we represent evil? In Transgression and the Aesthetics of Evil, Taran Kang examines the entanglements of aesthetics and morality. Investigating conceptions and images of evil, Kang identifies a fateful moment of transformation in the eighteenth century that continues to reverberate to the present day. Transgression, once allocated the central place in the constitution of evil, undergoes a startling revaluation in the Enlightenment and its aftermath, one that needs to be understood in relation to emergent ideas in the arts. Taran Kang engages with the writings of Edmund Burke, the Marquis de Sade, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Hannah Arendt, among others, as he questions recent calls to "de-aestheticize" evil and insists on a historically informed appreciation of evil’s aesthetic dimensions. Chapters consider the figure of the "evil genius," the paradoxical appeal of the grotesque and the disgusting, and the moral status of spectators who behold scenes of suffering and acts of transgression. In grappling with these issues, Transgression and the Aesthetics of Evil questions the feasibility and desirability of insulating the moral from the aesthetic.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Author: Oscar Wilde

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 1898

Total Pages: 80

ISBN-13:

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He did not wear his scarlet coat, For blood and wine are red, And blood and wine were on his hands When they found him with the dead, The poor dead woman whom he loved, And murdered in her bed. He walked amongst the Trial Men In a suit of shabby grey; A cricket cap was on his head, And his step seemed light and gay; But I never saw a man who looked So wistfully at the day. I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky, And at every drifting cloud that went With sails of silver by.


Book Synopsis The Ballad of Reading Gaol by : Oscar Wilde

Download or read book The Ballad of Reading Gaol written by Oscar Wilde and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 1898 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He did not wear his scarlet coat, For blood and wine are red, And blood and wine were on his hands When they found him with the dead, The poor dead woman whom he loved, And murdered in her bed. He walked amongst the Trial Men In a suit of shabby grey; A cricket cap was on his head, And his step seemed light and gay; But I never saw a man who looked So wistfully at the day. I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky, And at every drifting cloud that went With sails of silver by.

Over her dead body

Over her dead body

Author: Elisabeth Bronfen

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2017-06-01

Total Pages: 479

ISBN-13: 1526125633

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In 1846, Edgar Allen Poe wrote that 'the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetic topic in the world'. The conjuction of death, art and femininity forms a rich and disturbing strata of Western culture, explored here in fascinating detail by Elisabeth Bronfen. Her examples range from Carmen to Little Nell, from Wuthering Heights to Vertigo, from Snow White to Frankenstein. The text is richly illustrated throughout with thirty-seven paintings and photographs.


Book Synopsis Over her dead body by : Elisabeth Bronfen

Download or read book Over her dead body written by Elisabeth Bronfen and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1846, Edgar Allen Poe wrote that 'the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetic topic in the world'. The conjuction of death, art and femininity forms a rich and disturbing strata of Western culture, explored here in fascinating detail by Elisabeth Bronfen. Her examples range from Carmen to Little Nell, from Wuthering Heights to Vertigo, from Snow White to Frankenstein. The text is richly illustrated throughout with thirty-seven paintings and photographs.

Murder Under Her Skin

Murder Under Her Skin

Author: Stephen Spotswood

Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

Published: 2021-12-07

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 0385547153

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A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice • Rex Stout meets Agatha Christie with a fresh twist in the new Pentecost and Parker Mystery, a delightfully hardboiled high-wire act starring two daring women sleuths dead set on justice as they set out to solve a murder at a traveling circus “A delight.... It’s a pleasure to watch [Pentecost and Parker] sifting through red herrings and peeling secrets back like layers of an onion.” The New York Times Book Review Someone’s put a blade in the back of the Amazing Tattooed Woman, and Willowjean “Will” Parker’s former knife-throwing mentor has been stitched up for the crime. To uncover the truth, Will and her boss, world-famous detective Lillian Pentecost, travel to the circus, where they find a snake pit of old grudges, small-town crime, and secrets worth killing for. Will called Hart & Halloway’s Traveling Circus and Sideshow home for five years, and Ruby Donner, the circus’s tattooed ingenue, was her friend. To make matters worse, the prime suspect is Valentin Kalishenko, the man who taught Will everything she knows about putting a knife where it needs to go. To uncover the real killer and keep Kalishenko from a date with the electric chair, Will and Ms. Pentecost join the circus in sleepy Stoppard, Virginia, where the locals like their cocktails mild, the past buried, and big-city detectives not at all. The two swiftly find themselves lost in a funhouse of lies as Will begins to realize that her former circus compatriots aren’t playing it straight, and that her murdered friend might have been hiding a lot of secrets beneath all that ink.


Book Synopsis Murder Under Her Skin by : Stephen Spotswood

Download or read book Murder Under Her Skin written by Stephen Spotswood and published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice • Rex Stout meets Agatha Christie with a fresh twist in the new Pentecost and Parker Mystery, a delightfully hardboiled high-wire act starring two daring women sleuths dead set on justice as they set out to solve a murder at a traveling circus “A delight.... It’s a pleasure to watch [Pentecost and Parker] sifting through red herrings and peeling secrets back like layers of an onion.” The New York Times Book Review Someone’s put a blade in the back of the Amazing Tattooed Woman, and Willowjean “Will” Parker’s former knife-throwing mentor has been stitched up for the crime. To uncover the truth, Will and her boss, world-famous detective Lillian Pentecost, travel to the circus, where they find a snake pit of old grudges, small-town crime, and secrets worth killing for. Will called Hart & Halloway’s Traveling Circus and Sideshow home for five years, and Ruby Donner, the circus’s tattooed ingenue, was her friend. To make matters worse, the prime suspect is Valentin Kalishenko, the man who taught Will everything she knows about putting a knife where it needs to go. To uncover the real killer and keep Kalishenko from a date with the electric chair, Will and Ms. Pentecost join the circus in sleepy Stoppard, Virginia, where the locals like their cocktails mild, the past buried, and big-city detectives not at all. The two swiftly find themselves lost in a funhouse of lies as Will begins to realize that her former circus compatriots aren’t playing it straight, and that her murdered friend might have been hiding a lot of secrets beneath all that ink.

The Book of Evidence

The Book of Evidence

Author: John Banville

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2012-03-07

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0307817121

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John Banville’s stunning powers of mimicry are brilliantly on display in this engrossing novel, the darkly compelling confession of an improbable murderer. Freddie Montgomery is a highly cultured man, a husband and father living the life of a dissolute exile on a Mediterranean island. When a debt comes due and his wife and child are held as collateral, he returns to Ireland to secure funds. That pursuit leads to murder. And here is his attempt to present evidence, not of his innocence, but of his life, of the events that lead to the murder he committed because he could. Like a hero out of Nabokov or Camus, Montgomery is a chillingly articulate, self-aware, and amoral being, whose humanity is painfully on display.


Book Synopsis The Book of Evidence by : John Banville

Download or read book The Book of Evidence written by John Banville and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-03-07 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Banville’s stunning powers of mimicry are brilliantly on display in this engrossing novel, the darkly compelling confession of an improbable murderer. Freddie Montgomery is a highly cultured man, a husband and father living the life of a dissolute exile on a Mediterranean island. When a debt comes due and his wife and child are held as collateral, he returns to Ireland to secure funds. That pursuit leads to murder. And here is his attempt to present evidence, not of his innocence, but of his life, of the events that lead to the murder he committed because he could. Like a hero out of Nabokov or Camus, Montgomery is a chillingly articulate, self-aware, and amoral being, whose humanity is painfully on display.

The Murder of Art

The Murder of Art

Author: Thomas Crombez

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 9789082571219

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The murder of art. It sounds like the title of a thriller. That is exactly what the history of aesthetics is. Western philosophical tradition begins with a condemnation of art. The Greek philosopher Plato banished artists and poets from his ideal society. All they could produce were false shadow images. In contrast, from the eighteenth century onwards, art was also glorified by numerous thinkers. According to the Romantics, art was the bearer of a truth that escaped the concepts of philosophy. The murder of art, or the glorification of art. In both cases, art functioned as a challenge to philosophy. This book traces the history of aesthetics. At the same time, it provides a cross section of the history of philosophy.


Book Synopsis The Murder of Art by : Thomas Crombez

Download or read book The Murder of Art written by Thomas Crombez and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The murder of art. It sounds like the title of a thriller. That is exactly what the history of aesthetics is. Western philosophical tradition begins with a condemnation of art. The Greek philosopher Plato banished artists and poets from his ideal society. All they could produce were false shadow images. In contrast, from the eighteenth century onwards, art was also glorified by numerous thinkers. According to the Romantics, art was the bearer of a truth that escaped the concepts of philosophy. The murder of art, or the glorification of art. In both cases, art functioned as a challenge to philosophy. This book traces the history of aesthetics. At the same time, it provides a cross section of the history of philosophy.

Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics

Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics

Author: Frederic Spotts

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams

Published: 2018-10-16

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781468316711

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Available again, the classic, unprecedented look at how the strategies and ideals of the Third Reich were informed by Adolf Hitler's artistic aspirations. "Grimly fascinating . . . A book that will rightly find its place among the central studies of Nazism. . . . Invaluable." --The New York Times


Book Synopsis Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics by : Frederic Spotts

Download or read book Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics written by Frederic Spotts and published by Harry N. Abrams. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Available again, the classic, unprecedented look at how the strategies and ideals of the Third Reich were informed by Adolf Hitler's artistic aspirations. "Grimly fascinating . . . A book that will rightly find its place among the central studies of Nazism. . . . Invaluable." --The New York Times