| Title:
|
ON UGLINESS
|
| By: |
Professor of Semiotics Umberto Eco |
| Format: |
Paperback / softback |
| List price:
|
£19.95 |
|
We believe that this item is permanently unavailable, and so we cannot source
it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ISBN 10: |
0847837238 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780847837236 |
| Publisher: |
RIZZOLI INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATIONS |
| Pub. date: |
17 August, 2011 |
| Description: |
In a companion volume to his "History of Beauty," the renowned philosopher and cultural critic analyzes our attraction to the gruesome, horrific, and repellant in visual culture and the arts, drawing on abundant examples of painting and sculpture, ranging from antiquity to the works of Bosch, Goya, and others. |
| Synopsis: |
In the mold of his acclaimed History of Beauty, renowned cultural critic Umberto Eco's On Ugliness is an exploration of the monstrous and the repellant in visual culture and the arts. What is the voyeuristic impulse behind our attraction to the gruesome and the horrible? Where does the magnetic appeal of the sordid and the scandalous come from? Is ugliness also in the eye of the beholder? Eco's encyclopedic knowledge and captivating storytelling skills combine in this ingenious study of the Ugly, revealing that what we often shield ourselves from and shun in everyday life is what we're most attracted to subliminally. Topics range from Milton's Satan to Goethe's Mephistopheles; from witchcraft and medieval torture tactics to martyrs, hermits, and penitents; from lunar births and disemboweled corpses to mythic monsters and sideshow freaks; and from Decadentism and picturesque ugliness to the tacky, kitsch, and camp, and the aesthetics of excess and vice. With abundant examples of painting and sculpture ranging from ancient Greek amphorae to Bosch, Brueghel, and Goya among others, and with quotations from the most celebrated writers and philosophers of each age, this provocative discussion explores in-depth the concepts of evil, depravity, and darkness in art and literature. From the Hardcover edition. |
| Illustrations: |
illustrations |
| Publication: |
US |
| Imprint: |
Rizzoli International Publications |
| Returns: |
Non-returnable |