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Poulosky, Laura J.
Severed Heads and Martyred Souls
Crime and Capital Punishment in French Romantic Literature
Series: The Age of Revolution and Romanticism - Volume 33
Year of Publication: 2003
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., Oxford, Wien, 2003. 223 pp.
ISBN 978-0-8204-6353-7 hardback
(Hardcover)
Weight: 0.450 kg, 0.992 lbs
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- €* 64.90
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- £ 49.00
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- Hardcover
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Discipline
Book synopsis
Since capital punishment was such a hotly debated issue in Europe during the early nineteenth century, and since crime, trials, and executions provided ideal material for the melodrama that characterizes French Romanticism, several authors of the period naturally exploited the death penalty in their works. Severed Heads and Martyred Souls examines the Romantics' obsession with capital punishment, analyzing its literary treatment in texts by Hugo, Lamartine, Eugene Sue, Dumas the elder, Vigny, Balzac, Stendhal, and Nodier. The book explores the effects of death sentences on character and plot development, the language of the texts, and the overt or implicit moral and political messages of each author, and successfully demonstrates that reflecting upon the French Romantics' treatment of capital punishment is both important to understanding the Romantic movement, and instructive for current debate on the issue of capital punishment.
About the author(s)/editor(s)
The Author: Laura J. Poulosky completed her Ph.D. in 2001 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she taught French language and culture classes. She has studied at the University of Liege, Belgium, and the University of Savoy, France. Her previous publications include pieces on the representation of women by Rimbaud and on tragic couples in twentieth-century French theater. She is currently an independent scholar.
Series
The Age of Revolution and Romanticism: Interdisciplinary Studies. Vol. 33
General Editor: Gita May