Items related to Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
'A severed head can be many things: a loved one, a trophy, scientific data, criminal evidence, an educational prop, a religious relic, an artistic muse, a practical joke.' Larson surveys all these fates of human heads in a strange and often gruesome history that ranges from primitive tribes' shrunken heads to bizarre experiments in bringing guillotined heads back to life, and discusses issues such as the spectacle of public execution, the human face and the act of decapitation.
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About the Author:
Dr FRANCES LARSON was, until recently, a curator at the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford. She is the author of a biography of Henry Wellcome, An Infinity of Things (OUP, 2009). Dr Larson now teaches anthropology at the University of Durham.
Review:
“Larson delves into the grotesque yet wildly fascinating topic of decapitation... [Her] lively, conversational tone turns these morbid objects into something more meaningful than a mere expression of the macabre.”
- Publishers Weekly
“A brilliantly original exploration of what it is to be human. . . . Her fluently sinuous prose is by turns meditative and disquieting―and always utterly compelling.”
- Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth
“[W]ide-ranging and thoughtful... In an age where so many taboos are fading, the severed head retains its dreadful and sacred power.”
- Mike Jay, Wall Street Journal
“No need to explain why this nonfiction book made the top of my list... Despite the ghoulish subject, this is a closely researched, indeed, scholarly study of the bizarre customs of hunting, collecting, trading, displaying and otherwise bonding with other people’s heads.”
- Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
“This idiosyncratic history of decapitation... jumps between historical and recent examples, from the invention of the guillotine in the French Revolution to Damien Hirst’s self-portrait in a morgue... This morbid obsession, [Larson] argues, is common to all cultures―a realization that dawned on her when she worked at a museum that exhibited shrunken heads. Her book shares in this fascination―‘dangerous but irresistible’―and makes some distinctions between the forms it takes.”
- New Yorker
- Publishers Weekly
“A brilliantly original exploration of what it is to be human. . . . Her fluently sinuous prose is by turns meditative and disquieting―and always utterly compelling.”
- Helen Castor, author of She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth
“[W]ide-ranging and thoughtful... In an age where so many taboos are fading, the severed head retains its dreadful and sacred power.”
- Mike Jay, Wall Street Journal
“No need to explain why this nonfiction book made the top of my list... Despite the ghoulish subject, this is a closely researched, indeed, scholarly study of the bizarre customs of hunting, collecting, trading, displaying and otherwise bonding with other people’s heads.”
- Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
“This idiosyncratic history of decapitation... jumps between historical and recent examples, from the invention of the guillotine in the French Revolution to Damien Hirst’s self-portrait in a morgue... This morbid obsession, [Larson] argues, is common to all cultures―a realization that dawned on her when she worked at a museum that exhibited shrunken heads. Her book shares in this fascination―‘dangerous but irresistible’―and makes some distinctions between the forms it takes.”
- New Yorker
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherGranta Books
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 178378055X
- ISBN 13 9781783780556
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages317
- Rating
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Severed : A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found
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ISBN 10: 178378055X
ISBN 13: 9781783780556
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 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 it connects our inner selves to the outer world more evocatively than any other part of the body. Yet there is a dark side to the head's pre-eminence. Over the centuries, human heads have decorated our churches, festooned our city walls and filled our museums. Long regarded as objects of fascination and repulsion, 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 scientists promise the wealthy among us that our heads may one day live on without our bodies, the severed head is as contentious and compelling as ever. From the western colonialists whose demand for shrunken heads spurred brutal massacres to the troops in the Second World War who sent the remains of Japanese soldiers home to their girlfriends; from the memento mori in Romantic portraits to Damien Hirst's With Dead Head; from grave-robbing phrenologists to enterprising cryonicists, Larson explores the bizarre, often gruesome and confounding history of the severed head. Its story is our story. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR006227841
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 6545-9781783780556
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ISBN 10: 178378055X
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ISBN 13: 9781783780556
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Granta Books
(2014)
ISBN 10: 178378055X
ISBN 13: 9781783780556
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