A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Enlightenment [Hardcover]

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 Enlightenmentpresents 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.

Introduction: The Place of the Animal, 1600-1800, Matthew Senior, University of Minnesota, Morris * 1. The Souls of Men and Beasts, 1637-1764, Matthew Senior, University of Minnesota, Morris * 2. Hunting and the Ancien R?gime, Amy Warthesen, Cornell University * 3. Strange Familiars: The Two Faces of Animal Domestication, 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. The Animal Enlightenment, Jean-Luc Guichet, Coll?ge de Philosophie, Paris * 7. The Animal in 17th and 18th-Century Art, Madeleine Pinault-Sorensen, Mus?e du Louvre * Notes * Bibliography *