Culture and Sacrifice: Ritual Death in Literature and Opera - Hardcover

Hughes, Derek

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Synopsis

Human sacrifice has fascinated Western writers since the beginnings of European literature. It is prominent in Greek epic and tragedy, and returned to haunt writers after the discovery of the Aztec mass sacrifices. It has been treated by some of the greatest creative geniuses, including Shakespeare and Wagner, and was a major topic in the works of many Modernists, such as D. H. Lawrence and Stravinsky. In literature, human sacrifice is often used to express a writer's reaction to the residue of barbarism in his own culture. The meaning attached to the theme therefore changes profoundly from one period to another, yet it remains as timely an image of cultural collapse as it did over two thousand years ago. Drawing on sources from literature and music, in this 2007 book Derek Hughes examines the representation of human sacrifice in Western culture from The Iliad to the invasion of Iraq.

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Book Description

Human sacrifice has fascinated Western writers since the beginnings of European literature. Drawing on sources from literature and music, in this 2007 book Derek Hughes examines the representation of human sacrifice in Western culture from The Iliad to the invasion of Iraq.

About the Author

Derek Hughes is Professor of English at the University of Aberdeen.

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Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781107402911: Culture and Sacrifice: Ritual Death in Literature and Opera

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  1107402913 ISBN 13:  9781107402911
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2011
Softcover