Nick Cave : A Study of Love, Death and Apocalypse

This study analyses the work of Nick Cave, a singular, idiosyncratic and brilliant musician, specifically through his engagements with theology and the Bible. It does so not merely in terms of his written work – the novels and plays and poetry and lyrics that he continues to produce – but also the music itself.

­Covering more than three decades of extraordinarily diverse creativity, this book explores such themes as the depravity of the worlds invoked in Cave’s novels and other written work, the consistent invocation of apocalyptic, his restoration of death as a valid dimension of life, the twists of the love song, and the role of a sensual and heretical Christ. This book draws upon a select number of theorists who provide the methodological possibilities of digging deep into the theological nature of Cave’s work, namely Ernst Bloch, the methodological foundation stone, as well as Theodor Adorno, Theodore Gracyk and Jacques Attali.