Introduction

PART ONE: Anonymity and Sacrifice

Introduction: The Return of the Dead

A Unanimous Idea
Unanimity and confused bones
The origins of the Unknown Soldier
The primal scene

Identification and Chorality

Bones manifest themselves
Recognition, or reaching across the divide of living and dead
Sculpted water
A silent inscription

Sacrifice and the non finito

Taking up anonymity
Absolution
Initiation

PART TWO: Embodiment and Spectacle

Introduction: The Undead Body, The Photographic Image, and the Religious Icon

Embodiment and Imbestiamento
Trauma and animality
The symbolic journey
The darkness within

Mutilation and Spectacle

Phantom pain, mutilation, and repetition
Touching the absent body: the "Banner of Randaccio"
Transmitting the experience of death: Promethean fire

Mourning Transcendence and Reenchanting the Flesh

Confronting Mortality
Mourning Transcendence
Modernity and the Mystical Body

Conclusion

Bibliography
Notes
Illustrations

About the Author

Laura Wittman is an assistant professor in the Department of French and Italian at Stanford University.

Reviews

‘This is an interesting, innovative meditation on French and Italian Literary responses to anonymous wartime mortality across a broad chronological time span… primarily of interest to those working on literature, it will also be of value to historians specializing on Italy and the Great War.’
*The Journal of Modern History, vol 85:03:2013*

‘Fine monograph… Laura Wittman addresses the topic with an impressive breadth of sources and depth of analysis. The book is an original and compelling work of scholarship.’
*Italian Culture, vol 32:01:2014*

Table of Contents

About the Author

Reviews