The Introduction offers a broad survey of the body and the corpse in literature and world culture. The chapter opens with a detailed discussion of the violence of the so-called Islamic State, who use corpse abuse as a form of videographic terrorism and recruiting tool. Focus on the ‘spectacle’ of ISIS’ corpse mistreatment strategies functions as an entrée into a survey of the spectacle of power politics more broadly, from the Neo-Assyrian Empire to Rome to the French Revolution. The chapter also explores the semantic capaciousness of the body in western thought – its materiality, metaphoricity, sacrality – with examination of theorizing from Plato to Adriana Cavarero.