The Severed Head: Capital Visions

Julia Kristeva; Translated by Jody Gladding

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December, 2011
Cloth, 176 pages, 18 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-15720-9
$34.50 / £24.00

"Through her wonder and her doubt Kristeva sets forth a compelling account of the sacred and of the intimate visionary capacity of the human soul." — Joshua Paetkau, Ecclesial University

"Julia Kristeva was invited to curate an exhibit at the Louvre—an exhibit with a point of view. A smart idea. The result: this extraordinary reflection on the severed head, Medusa, John the Baptist, Judith and Holofernes especially, and the guillotine. The powers of horror that engage Kristeva in this book ultimately lead us beyond abjection to a meditation on representation and the sacred. It is an original and powerful narrative." — Peter Brooks, professor of comparative literature, Princeton University, and author of Enigmas of Identity

Related Subjects

• Aesthetics
• Art, Music, Architecture, & Photography
• Continental/Feminist Philosophy
• Philosophy of Religion

Series

• European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism

About the Author

Julia Kristeva is professor of linguistics at the Université de Paris VII and author of many acclaimed works and novels, including This Incredible Need to Believe, Melanie Klein, Hannah Arendt, Possessions, Time and Sense, New Maladies of the Soul, Strangers to Ourselves, and Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. She is the recipient of the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought and the Holberg International Memorial Prize.

Jody Gladding is a poet who has translated more than twenty works from French.

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