Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar Germany

Description

In a book that confronts our society's obsession with sexual violence and the image of the violated female corpse in our collective consciousness, Harvard culturist Maria Tatar examines images of sexual murder and studies how art and murder have intersected in sexual culture from Weimar Germany to the present. 44 photos.

Maria Tatar is Professor of German at Harvard University. She is the author of Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood, The Hard Facts of the Grimm's Fairy Tales, and Spellbound: Mesmerism and Literature, all published by Princeton University Press.

"A compelling chronicle of Weimar Germany's disturbing and pervasive fascination with the sexually motivated murder of women, Lustmord breaks new ground in our understanding of German art and culture during this turbulent period between the two world wars... Tatar has written a brilliant book of art and cultural criticism, a book that scholars and theorists of the Weimar period will have to contend with for some years to come."--Patrice Petro, Art in America "Tatar's book is particularly relevant today, amid the heated debates over violence, even as the images become more brutal and sensational, and the camera more voyeuristic and merciless."--Barbara Kosta, The Women's Review of Books "A profound and provocative contribution to our understanding of sexual combat and the aestheticization of violence in modern culture."--Leslie Kitchen, The Bloomsbury Review "Lustmord is an unsettling study, rich both in documentation and speculation, that will change the way we look at Weimar as well as contemporary art... All this in prose that is all the more enviable for its precision, lucidity, and pithiness."--William Collins Donahue, German Politics and Society "Not for the first time--though seldom so brilliantly as in Tatar's slender book--fascism and modernism are conjoined; they correspond; they are letters from the same camp..."--John Leonard, The Nation "Tatar investigates the chilling motives behind representations that aestheticize violence, and that turn the mutilated female body into an object of fascination... Above all, she explores the complex relationship between gender roles, sexuality, violence and representation... Tatar's book is particularly relevant today, amid the heated debates over violence, even as the images become more brutal and sensational, and the camera more voyeuristic and merciless. The story of sexual murder is all too common--and not just during the brief period of the Weimar Republic. It's precisely the commonplace nature of such brutal and misogynistic crimes that Maria Tatar seeks to expose."--Barbara Kosta, The Women's Review of Books "This volume is intriguing, puzzling, illuminating, and depressing."--Andrew Lees, The Historian "A remarkable book. [It] is both a study of German avant-garde and modernist art and a sustained reflection on the relationships between gender, crime, violence and representation... Lustmord breaks new ground in our understanding of German art and culture during this turbulent period between the two world wars... A brilliant book of art and cultural criticism... "--Patrice Petro, Art in America "A brilliant and energetic exploration of a subject that has gone for too long ignored, a profound and provocative contribution to our understanding of sexual combat and the aestheticization of violence in modern culture."--Leslie Kitchen, The Bloomsbury Review