Venus as Muse: From Lucretius to Michel Serres (Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, 182)

This volume deals with the enduring presence of one of Western culture's most fascinating and influential figures in ancient, modern, and postmodern art and literature: Venus/Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality. The collection, which is the first of its kind, seeks to explore Venus's significance as a figure of beauty and creativity across cultures and disciplines, engaging a range of media, theoretical approaches, and cultural perspectives. Thirteen international scholars -- including Elisabeth Bronfen, Tom Conley, Laurence Rickels, and Barbara Vinken -- illuminate Venus's lasting value as a multifaceted figure of the creative in Western culture, from Lucretius to Michel Serres. Venus as Muse Copyright Contents Introduction Venus as Muse. A Contradictory Thought-Image? Venus Anadyomene. The Birth of Art Venus and the Passion for Renewal in Lucretius’s On the Nature of Things Visual & Performing Arts The Figure of Venus. Rhetoric of the Ideal from Cabanel to Claude Cahun Intra-Venus Literature Venus as Muse. Toward a Poetics of Lust “The Most Blessed Goddess” Venus as the ‘Ally’ of the Poet (in) Heinrich Heine Venus Backwards. From Rimbaud to Ronsard Nana: Venus a rebours. Paris of the Second Empire as the Return of Rome and Babylon The Transit of Venus Film, Media, Theory Venus Barbata Cleopatra’s Venus Samuel Beckett’s ‘Peephole’ Venus. Re-Sexualization, The Oral Mother, and the Masochist Contract in Eh Joe, Ghost Trio, and ...but the clouds... Venusian Ecosophy Contributors