In traditional mythology and iconography, Medusa's killing powers are attributed to visual means: the monster is slain for her looks and her effect is to kill men for looking at her. Challenging the familiar account of the modern era as ocularcentric, this book reads the Medusa-effect on the philosophy of the modern research university as rooted in an audiocentric fantasy. Author Dawne McCance links phonocentrism to an aural imaginary by tracking the trope—and terror—of the deaf ear and mute mouth in the discourse on the university that was inaugurated by Kant and that extends through Hegel and Heidegger to the present. She shows how, repeatedly, in founding texts on the modern research university, the philosopher's fearful recoil from an animal-female figure that he defines as deaf and dumb has the effect—the Medusa-effect—of cutting off his own, and therefore the institution's, ear and tongue. McCance also considers some recent efforts to shake the modern institution out of its Medusa-effect petrification.
Medusa's Mourning draws out the authentic nature of overthinking. As humans, we all have our self-criticisms, inner-turmoil, and snakes that whisper into our ears, meddling with our minds and dimming our perceptions. This collection of poems examines the many manifestations of insecurities and the attempt of regaining the territories of the mind taken by intrusive thoughts. Honardoust's work will resonate with readers who feel overwhelmed with their inner voice; you will feel empowered and heard in Medusa's Mourning. This poetry disregards ties to Greek mythology and any references made to Medusa are used as symbolism.
Minister of Police Joseph Fouché was universally distrusted, feared, and hated in his time, but was nevertheless considered indispensable. In Medusa's Head, Rand Mirante recounts the chameleonic and astonishing career of Napoleon's security chief, who created the modern police state and wielded immense power that threatened the other main organs of government. Fouché was one of the most important, fascinating, and controversial figures of the French Revolution, the First Empire, and the Bourbon Restoration, and this biography captures and unravels the highlights of Fouché's life, including his infamous roles as: A priest-in-training who became a radical Jacobin and de-Christianizer A regicide who cast a dramatic swing vote for Louis XVI's immediate execution The grim and remorseless "Butcher of Lyon" Mastermind of the conspiracy that sent Robespierre to the guillotine The head of Napoleon's police - privy to everyone's secrets, shaping the media, deploying 10,000 informants in Paris alone, and securing funding from the Empire's casinos and brothels Cunning enabler of Napoleon's 1799 coup, and subsequent repeated betrayer of the Emperor Acting president after Waterloo and traitor to France Louis XVIII's Minister of Police, in spite of his responsibility for the death of the King's brother A wealthy but disgraced exile who met an unusual end in Trieste on the Adriatic Medusa's Head provides fresh insights and perspectives on this enormously influential and fearsome individual.
A vivid and moving reimagining of the myth of Medusa and the sisters who loved her. Even before they were transformed into Gorgons, Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale were unique among their immortal family. Curious about mortals and their lives, Medusa and her sisters entered the human world in search of a place to belong, yet quickly found themselves at the perilous center of a dangerous Olympian rivalry and learned—too late—that a god’s love is a violent one. Forgotten by history and diminished by poets, the other two Gorgons have never been more than horrifying hags, damned and doomed. But they were sisters first, and their journey from lowly sea-born origins to the outskirts of the pantheon is a journey that rests, hidden, underneath their scales. Monsters but not monstrous, Stheno and Euryale will step into the light for the first time to tell the story of how all three sisters lived and were changed by each other, as they struggle against the inherent conflict between sisterhood and individuality, myth and truth, vengeance and peace.
Love is immeasurable On an isolated cape high above a churning sea, a mysterious young woman of enchanting beauty enters a lonely temple. Lulled there by inconceivable desire, it is a clandestine meeting that will forever alter her fate. Wishing only to capture the love of a god, she instead commits a grievous act of sin against an angry goddess and sets in motion a chain of events that not only tears her world apart, but those that love her as well... In a world ruled by men, and explained by myth, two brave sisters must break the rules and embark on a perilous journey. Divided by difference, yet united by a singular cause, they must go out into a world that is at once cruel and capricious; a world which often views and treats women as being no better than slaves It is a journey that will take them across the width and breadth of ancient Greece. From the highest of mountains, to the deepest of valleys; to the most fabled of lands where myths come to life and futures are told, and finally, to the dark confines of the Underworld itself in search of answers. It is a journey that will see them pitted against unforeseen challenges and dangers, and at times against each other. But as their journey of struggle and discovery unfolds, something unusual begins to take shape, and the question of what happened to their sister is invariably replaced with one of a much deeper meaning How far would you go to save the soul of someone you love?
The question of selfhood in Renaissance texts constitutes a scholarly and critical debate of almost unmanageable proportions. The author of this work begins by questioning the strategies with which male writers depict powerful women. Although Spenser's Britomart, Shakespeare's Cleopatra, and Milton's Eve figure selfhood very differently and to very different ends, they do have two significant elements in common: mirrors and transformations that diminish the power of the female self.
This book examines the central role of casuistry - the science of resolving problems of moral choice, known as 'cases of conscience' - in Elizabethan religious, political, and literary culture. In the process, that author develops a theory of casuistical hermeneutics in a synthesis of new historicist and post-structuralist methodologies, a synthesis made intelligible in terms applied within the discourses of ideological and epistemological crisis that late-sixteenth-century casuiatry both addressed and provoked. Casuistry gained unprecedented notoriety in the last two decades of Elizabeth's reign, emerging as an ambiguous practice that continued to be claimed as a heuristic procedure while it also came to function as a locus of moral and epistemological uncertainty. The author shows the equivocal nature of casuistry to be the effect of the inherently dialogic activity of the word 'conscience'. Believed to be a sacred repository of truth as well as a hermeneutic operation, conscience both embodied the culture's received norms and subjected to scrutiny the social and political negotiations that produced and maintained these norms. The author examines the application of casuistry in wide-ranging but interrelated documents: Elizabeth's two speeches to Parliament concerning the fate of Mary, Queen of Scots; representative manuals of casuistry; accounts of the secret movements of the English Catholic mission and Walsingham's intelligence network; the 'Siena Sieve' portrait of Spencer's The Faerie Queene. The author establishes casuistical hermeneutics as a central organizing principle of Spenserian narrative and charts the connection between Spenserian narrative and novelistic discourse (in Bakhtin's sense of the term). These documents yield new insights into the politics of ambiguity and misreading in the Elizabethan period, variously exploiting the casuistical doctrines of equivocation, 'honest dissimulation', and mental reservation, as well as what the author calls the rhetoric of inviolability, which was associated with the voice of conscience and appropriated by monarch and dissidents alike. That rhetoric depended on a politic self-censorship that proved indispensable to the maintenance of the culture's norms, producing narrative structures that represent scandalous - and theoretically unrepresentable - insights. Reading the text of casuistry in the Renaissance illumines the pivotal, complementary processes of reading and writing the texts through which Elizabethan culture defined itself - its texts of power, its hierarchy of values and norms, its taboos, and its tacit or naturalized protocol for determining canonical texts and 'good' readings.
In the Greek mythological pantheon, the Gorgon Medusa stands a head above all others in her power to terrify. This book gives readers a close-up look at this snake-haired horror. Starting with details about Medusa's history, physical features, and supernatural powers, the text continues with a retelling of the classic myth of Perseus. It then takes a look at some of Medusa's other manifestations in classic art and literature as well as her role in modern pop culture. From fable to film, sculpture to song, the Gorgon continues to work her ancient magic on modern audiences.
Medusa was a snake-headed monster in Greek mythology. Medusa explores this creature's backstory and how her use in artwork has changed over time. Easy-to-read text, vivid images, and helpful back matter give readers a clear look at this subject. Features include a table of contents, infographics, a glossary, additional resources, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Kids Core is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Ranging from classical times to pop culture, this collection will appeal to art historians, feminists, classicists, cultural critics, and anyone interested in mythology.
