![]() ![]() As Yalom says, "I intend to make you think about women's breasts as you never have before." In this, she succeeds brilliantly. A History of the Breast, published by Knopf, traces the breast as a sacred, erotic, political and practical object in Western culture from prehistoric times. ![]() Yalom examines these contradictions-and illuminates the implications behind them.Ī fascinating, astute, and richly allusive journey from Paleolithic goddesses to modern day feminists, A History of the Breast is full of insight and surprises. Then there is the "bad breast" of Ezekiel's wanton harlots, Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, and the torpedo-breasted dominatrix, symbolizing enticement and aggression. There is the "good breast" of reverence and life, the breast that nourishes infants and entire communities, as depicted in ancient idols, fifteenth-century Italian Madonnas, and representations of equality in the French Revolution. Through the centuries, the breast has been laden with hugely powerful and contradictory meanings. In this provocative, pioneering, and wholly engrossing cultural history, noted scholar Marilyn Yalom explores twenty-five thousand years of ideas, images, and perceptions of the female breast-in religion, psychology, politics, society, and the arts. ![]()
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