Polymorphous Domesticities: Pets, Bodies, and Desire in Four Modern WritersPolymorphous Domesticities maps out the play of gender, sexuality, and alternative forms of domesticity in the works of four modern European and American writers—Edith Wharton, Djuna Barnes, Colette, and J. R. Ackerley. What these four writers have in common is a defiance of patriarchal paradigms in their lives as well as in their works. Not only did they live outside the norms of the heterosexual family unit, they also pursued and wrote about alternative lifestyles that prominently involved animals. Through close readings from a feminist perspective, Juliana Schiesari reconfigures the ways in which interspecies relationships inflect domestic spheres, reading the "Other" through the lens of gender, home, and family. As she explores how domestic life is refigured by the presence of animals, Schiesari challenges anthropocentric frames of reference and brings the very definition of "human" into question. |
Contents
ReVisions of Diana in Edith Wharton | 16 |
Colette at Home | 38 |
J R Ackerleys Dog Days | 76 |
Notes | 117 |
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Common terms and phrases
Ackerley’s Actaeon affection Alain Anne Anne’s anthropocentric anthropomorphism Artemis Bâ-Tou beast beastly beauty become behavior bitch breeding C’est Camille caress character chatte Claudine Colette Willy Colette’s course creatures d’une death describes desire Dialogues de bêtes Diana Djuna Barnes Dog Tulip dog’s domestic space E.M. Forster Edith Wharton emblem of fidelity erotic Evie Evie’s eyes feel female final Francis Jammes Frank Freud frustrated gaze gender German shepherd dog ghost goddess gynaeceum human and animal husband J.R. Ackerley Jammes Johnny Johnny’s Kerfol la chienne literary lives love object lover Maurice Goudeket Megan mère metaphor metonymies modern mother Mother’s House myth narrator narrator’s never Nightwood nonhuman Nonoche Nora Nora’s novel one’s pater familias patriarchal polymorphous domesticity posthumanist Press qu’elle Queenie question relation Renaissance Robin Saha Schiesari sexual species story tion Toby-Chien trans turn Vicki Hearne wife wild woman women writing York Yves Yves’s