A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Enlightenment

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. As with all the volumes in the illustrated Cultural History of Animals, this volume presents 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. Volume 4 in the Cultural History of Animals edited by Linda Kalof and Brigitte Resl

Matthew Senior is Associate Professor of French and Chair of the Department of French and Italian at Oberlin College, and author of Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western History.

Introduction: The Animal Witness, Matthew Senior, Oberlin College 1. The Souls of Men and Beasts, 1637-1764, Matthew Senior, Oberlin College 2. The War Against Animals: The Culture of the Hunt in Early Modern France, Amy Warthesen, Cornell University 3. From Sheep to Meat, From Pets to People, Animal Domestication 1600-1800, 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. Animality and Anthropology in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean-Luc Guichet, Collège de Philosophie, Paris 7. Portraits of Animals, 1600-1800, Madeleine Pinault-Sorensen, Musée du Louvre Notes Bibliography Index