Death and the Displacement of Beauty: Foundations of violence

Download or read book Death and the Displacement of Beauty: Foundations of violence written by Grace Jantzen and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pursuit and love of death has characterized Western culture since Homeric times. Foundations of Violence enters the ancient world of Homer, Plato and Aristotle to explore the genealogy of violence in Western thought. It covers the origins of ideas of death--the "beautiful death" of Homeric heroes-through to the gendered misery of war. Jantzen examines the tensions between those who tried to eliminate fear of death by denying its significance, and those like Plotinus who looked to another world for life and beauty.