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"The Call of the Trance" is a magnificent book which takes us to the frontiers of the forbidden. These states of eclipse from life that are pursued by every human being who is in search of meaning are elusive and invariably inexpressible. From initiation ceremonies to crises of hysteria, from suicide attempts to the ecstasies of witches, Catherine Clement explores in simple but scholarly terms the responses that civilizations have offered to this need to disappear. These human beings whose marginal status is a source of anxiety are persecuted by social and religious rules. From the witches of Loudun to current Mongolian shamans, from the eighteenth-century Convulsionaries of Saint-Medard to Greeks of today dancing on the embers of their fires, Clement questions the countless means desire employs to push back the limits of the body. She shows how, from Dionysian antiquity to our own day, the "petite mort" of the trance state shows up in the lovers "coup de foudre," in anorexia, rock music, rap, sexual reassignment, eroticism and even "Twilight"-style vampire stories."
Info autore
Catherine Clement, prominent French feminist, has published numerous essays and novels, including Opera: The Undoing of Women and Theo's Odyssey. Chris Turner is a writer and translator who lives in Birmingham, England.
Riassunto
Takes us to the unchartered frontiers of the forbidden. From initiation ceremonies to crises of hysteria, from suicide attempts to the ecstasies of witches, the author explores in simple but scholarly terms the responses that civilizations have offered to the humanistic need for escape from the body.
