Publisher's Synopsis
This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the descent to the underworld in Modernism. The book shows that the nekyia was the single most important myth for the Modernists between 1895 and 1946. It focuses on "necrotypes", symbolic images typically found in association with descent to the underworld. It also takes an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, with chapters on the nekyia in film, science, psychology, and painting. It pays careful attention to the multicultural sources for the myth - Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, Celtic, Norse, and Native American.
