1st Edition
Victorian Animal Dreams Representations of Animals in Victorian Literature and Culture
The Victorian period witnessed the beginning of a debate on the status of animals that continues today. This volume explicitly acknowledges the way twenty-first-century deliberations about animal rights and the fact of past and prospective animal extinction haunt the discussion of the Victorians' obsession with animals. Combining close attention to historical detail with a sophisticated analytical framework, the contributors examine the various forms of human dominion over animals, including imaginative possession of animals in the realms of fiction, performance, and the visual arts, as well as physical control as manifest in hunting, killing, vivisection and zookeeping. The diverse range of topics, analyzed from a contemporary perspective, makes the volume a significant contribution to Victorian studies. The conclusion by Harriet Ritvo, the pre-eminent authority in the field of Victorian/animal studies, provides valuable insight into the burgeoning field of animal studies and points toward future studies of animals in the Victorian period.
Biography
Deborah Denenholz Morse is Associate Professor of English at the College of William and Mary, USA. Martin A. Danahay is Professor of English at Brock University, Canada.
'Danahay and Morse have provided Victorianists and students of animal studies with a valuable and timely collection. Ranging from studies of beetlemania to elephant slaughter and the market for whale meat, the diverse essays included here illuminate the complexities of Victorian love of and desire for dominance over the natural world.' Barbara T. Gates, University of Delaware, USA ’... a particularly welcome addition to Victorian scholarship and to the emerging field of animal studies ... Uniformly well written and engaged with emerging scholarship on the Victorians and animals, these essays address a variety of canonical and noncanonical texts from the Victorian age. Recommended.’ Choice ’... essential reading for all scholars in animal studies ... anyone who teaches the subject will certainly find things in here to recommend to students ...’ British Society for Literature and Science ’If one wanted to begin a research project, design a seminar, or write a lecture on Victorian animals, this volume would be an excellent place to start. ... all of the essays in the collection uncover valuable new material. ... Overall, the collection presents an admirable scholarly depth and purchase on historical and literary detail, suggesting that this new field of Victorian animal studies has reached a point of substantive maturity and that it deserves serious attention and wider recognition among Victorianists.’ Victorian Studies
