Overview

Gorgeous Beasts takes a fresh look at the place of animals in history and art. Refusing the traditional subordination of animals to humans, the essays gathered here examine a rich variety of ways animals contribute to culture: as living things, as scientific specimens, as food, weapons, tropes, and occasions for thought and creativity. History and culture set the terms for this inquiry. As history changes, so do the ways animals participate in culture. Gorgeous Beasts offers a series of discontinuous but probing studies of the forms their participation takes. This collection presents the work of a wide range of scholars, critics, and thinkers from diverse disciplines: philosophy, literature, history, geography, economics, art history, cultural studies, and the visual arts. By approaching animals from such different perspectives, these essays broaden the scope of animal studies to include specialists and nonspecialists alike, inviting readers from all backgrounds to consider the place of animals in history and art. Combining provocative critical insights with arresting visual imagery, Gorgeous Beasts advances a challenging new appreciation of animals as co-inhabitants and co-creators of culture. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Dean Bavington, Ron Broglio, Mark Dion, Erica Fudge, Cecilia Novero, Harriet Ritvo, Nigel Rothfels, Sajay Samuel, and Pierre Serna.

Full Product Details

Author:   Joan B. Landes ,  Paula Young Lee ,  Paul Youngquist
Publisher:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Imprint:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Volume:   2
Dimensions:   Width: 17.80cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.771kg
ISBN:  

9780271054025

ISBN 10:   0271054026
Pages:   258
Publication Date:   15 November 2014
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Joan B. Landes, Paula Young Lee, and Paul Youngquist 1 Animal Subjects: Between Nature and Invention in Buffon’s Natural History Illustrations Joan B. Landes 2 Renaissance Animal Things Erica Fudge 3 The Cujo Effect Paul Youngquist 4 On Vulnerability: Studies from Life That Ought Not to Be Copied Ron Broglio 5 The Rights of Man and the Rights of Animality at the End of the Eighteenth Century Pierre Serna Translated by Vito Caiati and Joan B. Landes 6 Calling the Wild Harriet Ritvo 7 Trophies and Taxidermy Nigel Rothfels 8 Fishing for Biomass Sajay Samuel and Dean Bavington 9 Daniel Spoerri’s Carnival of Animals Cecilia Novero A Conversation with the Artist Mark Dion Joan B. Landes, Paula Young Lee, and Paul Youngquist Bibliography About the Contributors Index

Reviews

The essays in this book explore the important, sometimes ambiguous roles that animals play in human culture. </p>--E. K. Mix, <em>Choice</em></p>

Edited by Joan B. Landes, Paula Young Lee, and Paul Youngquist, Gorgeous Beasts brings together nine essays by some of the most sophisticated voices within animal studies to explore the histories and desires shaping human encounters with other animals, both alive and dead. . . . Gorgeous Beasts asks all the right questions. Its animal bodies are provocative, unpredictable, and potent. Meticulously researched and eloquently argued with clear, accessible language, the essays incite a knowing that grows beyond the page and into our daily lives with other animals. Rachel Poliquin, Humanimalia

The essays in this book explore the important, sometimes ambiguous roles that animals play in human culture. E. K. Mix, Choice

The essays in this book explore the important, sometimes ambiguous roles that animals play in human culture. --E. K. Mix, Choice

Author Information

Joan B. Landes is Walter L. and Helen Ferree Professor of Early Modern History and Women's Studies at Penn State University. Paula Young Lee is an independent scholar and the editor of Meat, Modernity, and the Rise of the Slaughterhouse (2008). Paul Youngquist is Professor of English at the University of Colorado, USA.

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