Lustmord [Hardcover]

Maria Tatar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 1995

In a book that confronts our society's obsession with sexual violence, Maria Tatar seeks the meaning behind one of the most disturbing images of twentieth-century Western culture: the violated female corpse. This image is so prevalent in painting, literature, film, and, most recently, in mass media, that we rarely question what is at stake in its representation. Tatar, however, challenges us to consider what is taking place, both artistically and socially, in the construction and circulation of scenes depicting sexual murder. In examining images of sexual murder ("lustmord"), she produces a riveting study of how art and murder have intersected in the sexual politics of culture from Weimar Germany to the present. Tatar focuses attention on the politically turbulent Weimar Republic, often viewed as the birthplace of a transgressive avant-garde modernism, where representations of female sexual mutilation abound. Here a revealing episode in the gender politics of cultural production unfolds as male artists and writers, working in a society consumed by fear of outside threats, envision women as enemies that can be contained and mastered through transcendent artistic expression. Not only does Tatar show that male artists openly identified with real-life sexual murderers - George Grosz posed as Jack the Ripper in a photograph where his model and future wife was the target of his knife - but she also reveals the ways in which victims were disavowed and erased. Tatar first analyzes actual cases of sexual murder that aroused wide public interest in Weimar Germany. She then considers how the representation of murdered women in visual and literary works functions as a strategy for managing social and sexual anxieties, and shows how violence against women can be linked to the war trauma, to urban pathologies, and to the politics of cultural production and biological reproduction.

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From The New Yorker

A profound and provocative contribution to our understanding of sexual combat and the aestheticization of violence in modern culture. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (April 17, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691043388
• ISBN-13: 978-0691043388
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,218,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Maria Tatar teaches folklore, children's literature, and German cultural studies at Harvard University. She chairs the Program in Folklore and Mythology. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Journey into the Minds of Men, March 23, 1999

By 

Pat Brown "Criminal Profiler" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lustmord (Paperback)

Fascinating book that looks at the art of Germany after World War 1 and discusses the implication of the sexually violent images that increased dramatically at that point in history. This is a sociological look at the connection between the culture of the times and the idiosyncrasies that produced such a mindset. Pat Brown/Director/Investigative Criminal Profiler/The Sexual Homicide Exchange, Inc.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Odd, yet interesting, October 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Lustmord (Paperback)

This book is first and foremost of great interest to students of the arts, illustrating the social climate in which German artists between the World Wars worked and its effect on their art. Additionally, it should also interest hard core true crime buffs. There are plenty of interesting tidbits about Peter Kurten and Fritz Haarman, two of Germany's most twisted citizens, and it is fascinating to see how their crimes influenced German attitudes, reflected in the violent art that the region produced. One could draw parallels to modern American society's current attitudes towards serial killers, but that's another book entirely.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars cogent analysis of violence in an out of control culture, September 15, 2000

By 

Gwen Estaban "Gwen" (Leeds UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lustmord (Paperback)

I picked this book up at a used bookstore on a whim and found it rivetting. It is an incredible read becuase the author doesn't try to sensationalize the material. She has found some incredible material and makes it relevant to what is going on today. Some of the pictures are really upsetting but I think the author wants to make a point about what we accept as art.