Perceiving Animals

Humans and Beasts in Early Modern English Culture

Autor: Erica Fudge

Limbă:

Legare: Copertă tare

Editura: Palgrave USA

Disponibilitate: În depozitul extern în cantități mici

Expediem în 13-18 zile

583.60 lei

When we look at the human understanding of beasts in the past what we see are not only the foundatio...

Informații despre carte

Autor

Erica Fudge

Limbă

engleză

Legare

Carte - Copertă tare

Publicat

1999

Pagini

232

EAN

9780312225728

ISBN

0312225725

Enbook ID

02939173

Editura

Palgrave USA

Greutate

460

Dimensiuni

140 x 216 x 20

Descriere completă

When we look at the human understanding of beasts in the past what we see are not only the foundations of our own perception of animals but humans contemplating their own status. Perceiving Animals argues that what is revealed in a wide range of writing from the early modern period is a recurring attempt to separate the human from the beast. Looking at the representation of the animal in law, religious writings, literary representation, science and political ideas, what emerges is a sense of the fragility of humanity, a sense of a species which always requires an external addition - property, civilisation, education, mastery of the natural world - to be fully human. Erica Fudge engages with both canonical and non-canonical texts from the period 1558-1649, and examines previously unchallenged aspects of the status of humanity: what does it mean to own an animal? How does civilisation take place, and what does this tell us about uncivilised man? What does the humanist emphasis on education mean for the uneducated? Does science ever offer humanity separation from the beast? Texts by writers including Edward Coke, Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon and Richard Overton are re-examined, and the status of humanity comes under question. Perceiving Animals argues that within early modern English culture there is an uncomfortable sense of humanity with a superiority which is not innate, but dangerously unnatural.

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