The aesthetics of murder : a study in romantic literature and contemporary culture

Resource Information

The work The aesthetics of murder : a study in romantic literature and contemporary culture represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The aesthetics of murder : a study in romantic literature and contemporary culture

Title remainder

a study in romantic literature and contemporary culture

Statement of responsibility

Joel Black

Creator

• Black, Joel, 1950-

Subject

• Detective and mystery stories -- History and criticism
• Fiction -- History and criticism
• History
• Literature and society -- History -- 20th century
• Misdaadverhalen
• Moorden
• Murder in literature
• Murder in mass media
• Murder literature -- History and criticism
• Romanticism
• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Genre

• History
• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Language

eng

Summary

• "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
• "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

Member of

• Parallax, re-visions of culture and society

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

809/.93355

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

PN56.M85

LC item number

B57 1991

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Parallax : re-visions of culture and society