Crying : The Natural and Cultural History of Tears

Explores the natural & cultural history of our most mysterious & complex human function: our ability to shed tears. All humans, & only humans, weep. Looks at the way people have understood weeping from the earliest known representation of tears in the 14th cent. B.C. through tears found in today's films, ads, & therapies. Consolidates the theories of philosophers, physiolog., & ophthalmologists, psychol., anthropol., & sociologists. Also examines paintings from medieval times through Picasso, literary texts from Homer & Shakespeare through the sentimental writers of the 18th & 19th cent. to the present, & films from the weepiesÓ of the 1930s through TitanicÓ to unearth the meanings of tears.Lutz, Tom is the author of 'Crying : The Natural and Cultural History of Tears', published 2001 under ISBN 9780756752149 and ISBN 0756752140.