The Wise Wound: menstruation and everywoman

by Penelope Shuttle, Peter Redgrove

Overview

This is a book of many questions and some answers. What is this menstruation that half the world undergoes? Has it any use, or any purpose? Which is it, blessing or curse? This groundbreaking study of the facts, fantasies, and taboos surrounding menstruation has helped bring about a profound shift in attitudes toward a natural phenomenon that has been reviled and denigrated over the centuries. Thoroughly researched yet highly readable, combining psychology, anthropology, and poetry, Shuttle and Redgrove illustrate their theories using examples ranging from the Bible to such modern-day pop horrors as vampire movies and the cult film The Exorcist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780714534053
Publisher:	Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd
Publication date:	09/01/2005
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Penelope Shuttle is a feminist poet and novelist. She is the author of The Mirror of the Giant. Peter Redgrove received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1996. His manifesto on the Gaia hypothesis, The Black Goddess and the Sixth Sense appeared in 1987. He died in 2003.

Table of Contents

Foreword Prologue Chapter 1 The Science of Bleeding Chapter 2 The Menstrual Epidemic Chapter 3 Animus, Animal, Anima Chapter 4 Does the Moon Menstruate? Chapter 5 Did the Ancients Have Wisdom? Chapter 6 Witchcraft: Nine Million Menstrual Murders Chapter 7 The Mirror of Dracula End Matter Epilogue Afterword - The Menstrual Mandala Appendix Notes Works Cited Index

Editorial Reviews

"The first accessible book about menstruation as a human reality ... entirely praiseworthy." The Sunday Times "Answers many of the questions that one had never thought or dared to ask." Margaret Drabble, from the Foreword "It could bring about a major change in our understanding of the sexes." Psychology Today

From the Publisher