Woof. Meow. Oink. This course examines the wide array of representations of animals in nineteenth-century British literature. While acknowledging the importance of Darwinian evolutionary theory, we will focus on the literary and artistic representations of humanity's changing relationship with the animal. Threaded throughout the novels, poetry, essays, political cartoons, and taxidermy art, the figure of the animal becomes a vexing intersection for the overlapping discourses of race, gender, class, community, and ethics in the nineteenth century. At once an object to be preserved and displayed in the cabinets of natural history, the animal was also garnering increased sympathy and legal protection as new societies against animal cruelty were founded and Acts were passed (e.g., the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876). In order to enrich our understanding of the animal's role within the nineteenth-century British imaginary, we will consider popular representations of nineteenth-century animality, including the political cartoons of James Gillray and the public's response to the development of zoos.
Prerequisite: B+ average in ENGL; open to ENGL Honours students. |
