Victorian Animal Dreams: Representations of Animals in Victorian Literature and Culture

Victorian Animal Dreams: Representations of Animals in Victorian Literature and Culture
ISBN-10
1351875957
ISBN-13
9781351875950
Category
Literary Criticism
Pages
322
Language
English
Published
2017-05-15
Publisher
Routledge
Authors
Deborah Denenholz Morse, Martin A. Danahay

Description

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.

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