Medusa
Reaktion Books (Verlag)
9781780230955 (ISBN)
Medusa petrifies. Her gaze turned the ancients to stone; for Dante she was an erotic power that could destroy men. Freud saw in her serpentine hair a nest of terrifying penises signalling the castration complex, while for the Greek hero Perseus she was a dangerous female monster who must be destroyed. Yet in our time Medusa’s reputation has improved: feminists see her as a noble victim of a patriarchal society; the fashion house Versace celebrates the lure of her mysterious visage in a logo that stares out at us from his adverts; and she has served as a model for numerous theories by modern philosophers and intellectuals. In our contemporary culture she is once again a power player demanding to be recognized. Medusa still transfixes us.
In Medusa: In the Mirror of Time David Leeming explores how and why the mythical figure of the Gorgon has become one of the most important and enduring of human history. He searches for Medusa’s origins in global cultures more disparate and more ancient than the well-known classical Greek and follows her path through the centuries. The author finds that the Medusa myth is a cultural dream that has continually developed and changed with each passing era, ultimately bringing him to the question: what does the Medusa dream say about us?
David Leeming is Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut. He is the co-author of Gods, Heroes, and Kings: The Battle for Mythic Britain (2001) and author of numerous books on mythology including Myth: A Biography of Belief (2002), The Oxford Companion to World Mythology (2005) and Medusa: In the Mirror of Time (Reaktion, 2013). He lives in Stonington, Connecticut.
Preface I The Myth II Medusa's Lineage III Medusa in the Middle Ages and Renaissance IV Medusa in the Romantic and Victorian Ages V Medusa in the Age or Realism VI The Modern Intellectual Medusa VII The Feminist Medusa VIII Medusa as a Contemporary Icon IX A Critique of the Commentaries X Myth as Dream XI Dream Touchstones XII Conclusion: Who is Medusa? Bibliography Index
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 1.3.2013 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 24 illustrations |
| Verlagsort | London |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 216 x 138 mm |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Weitere Religionen | |
| ISBN-13 | 9781780230955 / 9781780230955 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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