SYNOPSIS
One of the most widely translated of Morgan's books, The Demon Lover: On the Sexuality of Terrorism was Cassandra-like in its prescience: 1989. It broke new ground as the first in-depth feminist analysis of violence.
Viewing the problem as the "eroticization of violence"--the sexual charisma that violence has come to exude--Morgan traces terrorism through multiple contexts, including the political, cultural, and mythic; violent insurgence by the Left as well as by the Right, and officially sanctioned terrorism by the State and by organized religion, all come under her scrutiny.
Terrorist acts are overwhelmingly committed by men, and Morgan locates those acts on a continuum of violence that is now so "normal" as to be deemed, simply "manhood." She analyzes "Token Terrorist" women, too--including herself, in a revealing personal chronicle of her activities in the 1960s. Also explored are women's cross-cultural attitudes toward violence. Here, for the first time, Palestinian women speak movingly of their struggle to survive as women, through extraordinary interviews Morgan conducted in refugee camps. A final chapter, "Beyond Terror," sets forth a compelling vision of hope for the future, in which the patriarchal thirst for death is slaked, and a new "politics of Eros" blooms.
395 pages, cloth and paperback
See also this site's listing forThe Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism, Updated, Second Edition (Washington Square Press, 2001)
REVIEWS
The first feminist treatise on terrorism. . . . Presents not only incisive analysis but compelling new material: for the first time, Morgan writes of her own history as a wman warrior of the New Left. A brilliant critique.--LIBRARY JOURNAL
A frightening but ultimately affirmative look at cultural links between beauty and death, sexuality and terror. . . . Of prime interest are Morgan's interviews with Palestinian women on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This is a book that women (and men) will overlook at their peril.--KIRKUS REVIEWS
Morgan brings a startling perspective to terrorism, which she sees as arising out of patriarchal societies' emphasis on power, control, domination, and violence.--PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY
This is an extraordinary book, disturbing in its social analysis, exhilirating in its visionary power.--NINA AUERBACH
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