A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Enlightenment

by Matthew Senior (Editor)

Overview

Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008

The period of the Enlightenment saw great changes in the way animals were seen. The codifying and categorizing impulse of the age of reason saw sharp lines drawn between different animal species and between animals and humans. In 1600, "beasts" were still seen as the foils and adversaries of human reason. By 1800, animals had become exemplars of sentiment and compassion, the new standards of truth and morals. A new age had dawned, a time when humans admired animals and sought to recover their own animality.

A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Enlightenment presents an overview of the period and continues with essays on the position of animals in contemporary symbolism, hunting, domestication, sports and entertainment, science, philosophy, and art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845203726
Publisher:	Berg Publishers
Publication date:	04/01/2009
Series:	The Cultural Histories Series , #4
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Matthew Senior is Professor of French at Oberlin College and author of Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western History.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Animal Witness
Matthew Senior, Oberlin College


1. The Souls of Men and Beasts, 1637-1764
Matthew Senior, Oberlin College


2. The War Against Animals: The Culture of the Hunt in Early Modern France
Amy Warthesen, Cornell University


3. From Sheep to Meat, From Pets to People, Animal Domestication 1600-1800
Karen Raber, University of Mississippi


4. Inside and Outside: Animal Activity and the Red Bull Playhouse, St. John Street
Eva Griffith, University of Durham


5. Natural History, Natural Philosophy, and Animals
Anita Guerrini, University of California-Santa Barbara


6. Animality and Anthropology in Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Luc Guichet, Collège de Philosophie, Paris


7. Portraits of Animals, 1600-1800
Madeleine Pinault-Sorensen, Musée du Louvre


Notes

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

An innovative and ambitious project that synthesizes knowledge of animals as living creatures and their symbolic representations... an invaluable contribution to our understanding... A combination of surprise and entertainment with serious research gives these volumes a place in the best tradition of accessible science.
Bernd Hü

High quality editing, clear writing, and abundant visual illustrations ... These volumes will be basic to future scholarship dealing with animals and society. Essential.
ppauf, New York University for H-Soz-u-Kult

The Cultural History of Animals presents an innovative and compelling introduction to current scholarship about the historical relationships between people and other animals.
Harriet Ritvo, Arthur J. Conner Professor of History, M.I.T.

From the Publisher