Romantic Beasts

MICHAEL DEMSON is a professor of English at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.  CHRISTOPHER R. CLASON is a professor emeritus at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

• IntroductionMichael Demson and Christopher R. ClasonPart One: The Pervasion of Animal FiguresChapter 1: Animals in AbolitionAlastair HuntChapter 2: Imperial Animals and Aboriginal People: Collecting the South Pacific in Mary Ann Parker’s A Voyage Round the WorldPamela BuckChapter 3: The Politics of the Pig from Burke to BeckettJohn GardnerPart Two: The Eccentricity of Animal FiguresChapter 4: Familiarity and Flights of Imagination: Romantic BirdsJane SpencerChapter 5: The Poodle’s Perspective in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Lebensansichten des Katers MurrChristopher R. ClasonChapter 6: Weird Creatures: Romantic-era Zoophytes, The Great Chain of Being, and Posthumanist LifeAllison DushanePart Three: The Exhibition of Human-Animal EntanglementsChapter 7: The Monkey Artist and His Donkey Public: French Art-World Caricature, the Animal Menagerie, and the Digital HumanitiesKathryn DesplanqueChapter 8: Horse Paintings: Problems of Communication and Politics in French Romantic PaintingPeter EricksonChapter 9: The Beasts of Romantic MelodramaFrederick BurwickAcknowledgmentsBibliographyNotes on ContributorsIndexIntroduction 1Michael Demson and Christopher R. ClasonPA R T O N E : The Pervasion ofAnimal Figures1 Animals in Abolition 19Alastair Hunt2 Imperial Animals and Aboriginal People:Collecting the South Pacific in Mary Ann Parker’sA Voyage Round the World 38Pamela Buck3 The Politics of the Pig from Burke to Beckett 53John GardnerPA R T TWO : The Eccentricity ofAnimal Figures4 Familiarity and Flights of Imagination:Romantic Birds 73Jane Spencer5 The Poodle’s Perspective in E.T.A. Hoffmann’sLebensansichten des Katers Murr 91Christopher R. Clason6 Weird Creatures: Romantic-EraZoophytes, theGreatChain of Being, and Posthumanist Life 112Allison DushanePA R T T H R E E : The Exhibition ofHuman-AnimalEntanglements7 The Monkey Artist and His Donkey Public:French Art-WorldCaricature, the AnimalMenagerie, and the Digital Humanities 133Kathryn Desplanque8 HorsePaintings: Problemsof Communicationand Politics in French Romantic Painting 161Peter Erickson9 The Beasts of Romantic Melodrama 181Frederick BurwickAcknowledgments201Bibliography 203Notes on Contributors 221Index 000

"An excellent addition to the ever-expanding field of animal studies, Romantic Beasts invites consideration of non-human animals large and small, domesticated and wild, both familiar and exotic to the nineteenth-century European public. Here are animals on page and stage and in the plastic arts, real and allegorical, in chapters sure to stimulate wider explorations." - Glynis Ridley (coeditor of Robinson Crusoe after 300 Years) "Romantic Beasts enriches our discussions of the other-than-human, reaching across prominent as well as popular works in English, German, and French Romanticism, and connecting animal studies with race, slavery, and imperialism. These new perspectives will shape our understanding of literary animals, and extend the lively current debates around posthumanist, environmentalist, and affective approaches." - Laura Brown (author of The Counterhuman Imaginary: Earthquakes, Lapdogs, and Traveling Coinage in Eighteenth-Cent) "In its timely and authoritative discussion of animals in the context of Romanticism, this grouping of essays edited by Michael Demson and Christopher R. Clason offers a gap-filling understanding of an important locus of early nineteenth-century literary imagery. Informed by a wide array of texts, these studies are full of fascinating details and illuminating moments, all well-written and often corrective. Also a judicious compilation and integration of insights, this assemblage of studies also suggests, by implication, taking a new look at Romanticism itself. Romantic Beasts is a welcome contribution to literary history and criticism and a must-read for anyone interested in animalia and its cultural connections." - Larry H. Peer (editor of Transgressive Romanticism) "By drawing on the diverse but complementary perspectives of Romanticism and animal studies, Romantic Beasts advances the study of both fields to a new international and interdisciplinary level. This innovative and exciting collection of wide-ranging scholarly essays, expertly curated and comprehensively introduced by the two editors, is a fitting tribute to the polymathic Romanticism expertise of Professor Burwick to whom this volume is dedicated." - Eugene Stelzig (author of The Romantic Subject in Autobiography: Rousseau and Goethe)