The tomb of the unknown soldier, modern mourning, and the reinvention of the mystical body / Laura Wittman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wittman, Laura.

Series:

Toronto Italian studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Unknown military personnel--Social aspects--Italy.

Unknown military personnel.

Unknown military personnel--Political aspects--Italy.

Soldiers' monuments--Social aspects--Italy.

Soldiers' monuments.

War memorials--Social aspects--Italy.

War memorials.

Mourning customs--Italy.

Mourning customs.

Human body--Symbolic aspects--Italy.

Human body.

Human body--Symbolic aspects.

Social aspects.

Italy.

Physical Description:

xi, 439 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 2011.

Contents:

Part I Anonymity and Sacrifice

Introduction to Part I: The Return of the Dead 19

1 A Unanimous Idea 29

Unanimity and Confused Bones 29

The Origins of the Unknown Soldier 34

The Primal Scene 47

2 Identification and Chorality 55

Bones Manifest Themselves 55

Recognition, or Reaching across the Divide of Living and Dead 63

Sculpted Water 81

A Silent Inscription 88

3 Sacrifice and the Non finito 95

Taking Up Anonymity 95

Absolution 105

Initiation 116

Part II Embodiment and Spectacle

Introduction to Part II: The Undead Body, the Photographic Image, and the Religious Icon 133

4 Embodiment and Imbestiamento 149

Trauma and Animality 149

The Symbolic Journey 154

The Darkness Within 168

5 Mutilation and Spectacle 189

Phantom Pain, Mutilation, and Repetition 189

Touching the Absent Body: 'The Banner of Randaccio' 212

Transmitting the Experience of Death: Promethean Fire 231

6 Mourning Transcendence and Re-enchanting the Flesh 245

Confronting Mortality 245

Mourning Transcendence 247

Modernity and the Mystical Body 258.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781442643390

1442643390

OCLC:

681501253