Thesis ID: CBB001567431

Animal Ethics and Ethical Animals: American Literature and Science, 1849--1906 (2013)

unapi

Gravitte, Kristen Barber (Author)


Jenkins, Grant
Jackson, Robert
University of Tulsa
Jackson, Robert
Fuller, Randall


Publication Date: 2013
Edition Details: Advisor: Jenkins, Grant, Fuller, Randall; Committee Members: Jackson, Robert.
Physical Details: 280 pp.
Language: English

This dissertation explores representations of and conceptions of animals in American literature, science, and culture from the mid-nineteenth to the early-twentieth century and situates literary texts, their representations of animals, and their responses to phenomenological animals and contemporary conceptions of nonhuman and human within historical, religious, and scientific contexts. The dissertation argues that evolutionary theory, especially Darwinism, challenged the hierarchical human-animal binary with significant results for considerations of ethical human-animal relationships and representations of animality and humanity. The project illustrates how writers from the period employ animals to create meaning and how humans define what it means to be human via comparison with animals, arguing that the literature responds to evolutionary theory's challenge to the human-animal binary in three stages: animals as Others; animals and ethics; and human and animal subjectivity and identity. The dissertation also argues that animals themselves mean, signify, desire, communicate, and have their own perspectives, arguing that literature as well as science can help us imagine these meanings and what is it like to be a particular species different from our own. The dissertation concludes that nineteenth-century engagement with questions of animality and humanity anticipates present-day concerns in the fields of literary studies, animal studies, and posthumanism and in wider public concerns with human-animal relationships and with what it means to be "human" and/or "animal."

...More

Description Cited in Dissertation Abstracts International-A 75/01(E), Jul 2014. Proquest Document ID: 1439141518.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001567431/

Similar Citations

Article Pearson, Chris; (2013)
Dogs, History, and Agency (/isis/citation/CBB001202107/)

Book Janet M. Davis; (2016)
The Gospel of Kindness: Animal Welfare and the Making of Modern America (/isis/citation/CBB505773835/)

Thesis Elizabeth A. McNeill; (2022)
Speaking of Animals: Animal Psychology between Experimental Science and Imagination (1840-1920) (/isis/citation/CBB890315766/)

Book Karen Raber; Monica Mattfeld; (2017)
Performing Animals: History, Agency, Theater (/isis/citation/CBB936448989/)

Article Stefano Gensini; (2011)
Il "De brutorum loquela" di Girolamo Fabrici d'Acquapendente (/isis/citation/CBB674890412/)

Article Rangarajan, Mahesh; (2013)
Animals with Rich Histories: The Case of the Lions of Gir Forest, Gujarat, India (/isis/citation/CBB001202106/)

Article Cecilia Muratori; (2017)
‘In Human Shape to Become the Very Beast!’ – Henry More on Animals (/isis/citation/CBB014303409/)

Book Gontier, Thierry; (2005)
Animal et animalité dans la philosophie de la Renaissance et de l'Age Classique (/isis/citation/CBB000610366/)

Book Richter, Virginia; (2011)
Literature after Darwin: Human Beasts in Western Fiction, 1859--1939 (/isis/citation/CBB001033151/)

Thesis Nichols, Rachael L.; (2010)
The Human Animal: Tangles in Science and Literature, 1870--1920 (/isis/citation/CBB001567211/)

Book Benedetta Piazzesi; (2023)
Del governo degli animali. Allevamento e biopolitica (/isis/citation/CBB409851667/)

Book Fudge, Erica; (2004)
Renaissance Beasts: Of Animals, Humans, and Other Wonderful Creatures (/isis/citation/CBB000550061/)

Book Huntington, Rania; (2003)
Alien Kind: Foxes and Late Imperial Chinese Narrative (/isis/citation/CBB000550453/)

Book Burns, E. Jane; McCracken, Peggy; (2013)
From Beasts to Souls: Gender and Embodiment in Medieval Europe (/isis/citation/CBB001201715/)

Book Campbell, Gordon Lindsay; (2014)
The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life (/isis/citation/CBB001422644/)

Article Nash, Richard; Broglio, Ron; (2006)
Introduction (/isis/citation/CBB000932137/)

Book Stefanie Stockhorst; Jürgen Overhoff; Penelope J. Corfield; (2021)
Human-Animal Interactions in the Eighteenth Century: From Pests and Predators to Pets, Poems and Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB446524520/)

Authors & Contributors
Janet M. Davis
Overhoff, Jürgen
Benedetta Piazzesi
Dickinson, Kristin
Lynn Festa
McNeill, Elizabeth A.
Concepts
Human-animal relationships
Animals
Science and literature
Animal behavior
Ethics
Natural history
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
17th century
Early modern
Renaissance
Medieval
Places
United States
Europe
Italy
Greece
Germany
Rome (Italy)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment