Examines images of horror in Victorian fiction, criticism, and philosophy. Focusing on the recurring metaphor of Medusa’s head, The Medusa Effect examines images of horror in texts by Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, and a series of Victorian artists and critics writing about aesthetics. Through nuanced and innovative readings of canonical works by Freud, Nietzsche, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Walter Pater, A. C. Swinburne, and George Eliot, Thomas Albrecht demonstrates the twofold nature of these writers’ images of horror. On the one hand, the analysis illuminates how the representation of something seen as horrifying—for instance, a disturbing work of art, an existential insight, or a recognition of the fundamental inaccessibility of another person’s consciousness—can serve a protective purpose, to defend the writer in some way against the horror he or she encounters. On the other hand, the representations themselves can be a potential threat—epistemologically unreliable, for instance, or illusory, deceptive, fundamentally unstable, and potentially dangerous to the writers. Through a psychoanalytically informed literary analysis, The Medusa Effect explores crucial ethical and epistemological questions of Victorian aesthetics, as well as underexamined complexities of the mechanisms of Victorian literary representation. “ an elegant study in rhetorical analysis.” — Victorian Studies “Thomas Albrecht brings a radically different approach to aesthetics—psychoanalytic and poststructuralist rather than historicist—in The Medusa Effect.” — Studies in English Literature

Medusa - an experimental spaceship developed by the Advanced Research Department of St Oscar's University. Missing since it was launched, presumed lost in the wars, it was a project so secret that it has never been declassified. Now, twenty years on, Medusa is coming home. After one of the investigation team dies suspiciously, Professor Bernice Summerfield is assigned to help discover what went wrong. But to do so she must solve a riddle. What is the strange link between the original crew and the team now on board the drifting ship? And why do their ghosts still haunt Medusa?

Gorgon. Killer. Monster. Victim. Survivor. Protector. Medusa breathes new life into an ancient story and echoes the battle that women throughout millennia have continued to wage.

The Sarah Kofman Reader is a comprehensive anthology of significant essays and book excerpts by the postwar French philosopher and theorist Sarah Kofman (1934-1994).

Seeking to become immortal like the other Goddess Girls, Medusa searches for a magical necklace, an effort that is compromised by her mean reputation, her snaky hair, and unexpected consequences.

Enter the world of the Others in the first novel in New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop’s thrilling fantasy series: a place where unearthly entities—vampires and shape-shifters among them—rule the Earth and prey on the human race. As a cassandra sangue, or blood prophet, Meg Corbyn can see the future when her skin is cut—a gift that feels more like a curse. Meg’s Controller keeps her enslaved so he can have full access to her visions. But when she escapes, the only safe place Meg can hide is at the Lakeside Courtyard—a business district operated by the Others. Shape-shifter Simon Wolfgard is reluctant to hire the stranger who inquires about the Human Liaison job. First, he senses she’s keeping a secret, and second, she doesn’t smell like human prey. Yet a stronger instinct propels him to give Meg the job. And when he learns the truth about Meg and that she’s wanted by the government, he’ll have to decide if she’s worth the fight between humans and the Others that will surely follow.

This sci-fit thriller about a rogue starship servant has “mysteries around every corner. . . . the end product is just as fantastic as one would hope” (Los Angeles Times). My name is Oichi Angelis, and I am a worm. They see me every day. They consider me harmless. And that’s the trick, isn’t it? A generation starship can hide many secrets. When an Executive clan suspects Oichi of insurgency and discreetly shoves her out an airlock, one of those secrets finds and rescues her. Officially dead, Oichi begins to rebalance power one assassination at a time and uncovers the shocking truth behind the generation starship and the Executive clans. “Readers will be riveted.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “The first book in the Medusa Cycle does not disappoint.” —RT Book Reviews “A chilling tale of class warfare in deep space.” —Booklist “An enticing start to a new space opera .” —Library Journal “One of the best generation starship novels.” —SF Revu “The worlds . . . both physical and virtual, are richly detailed and gorgeously imagined.” —Kirkus Reviews “Disturbing, exciting, and frankly kind of mind-blowing.” —Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous