Thomas Hardy and AnimalsThomas Hardy and Animals examines the human and nonhuman animals who walk and crawl and fly across and around the pages of Hardy's novels. Animals abound in his writings, yet little scholarly attention has been paid to them so far. This book fills this gap in Hardy studies, bringing an important author within range of a new and developing area of critical inquiry. It considers the way Hardy's representations of animals challenged ideas of human-animal boundaries debated by the Victorian scientific and philosophical communities. In moments of encounter between humans and animals, Hardy questions boundaries based on ideas of moral sense or moral agency, language and reason, the possession of a face, and the capacity to suffer and perceive pain. Through an emphasis on embodied encounters, his writings call for an extension of empathy to others, human or nonhuman. In this accessible book Anna West offers a new approach to Hardy criticism. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adder Animal Intelligence animal rights animal world Arabella argues Bathsheba bees birds capacity Cary Wolfe chapter characters Clym Clym's crea cruelty Darwin death depictions Derrida Descartes Descent describes disease Emma Emmanuel Levinas emotion empathy encounter Eustacia example experience expression eyes face Fanny Fanny's feel FFMC Gabriel gaze George Romanes gestures Grace Greenwood Tree Hardy's narrator Hardy's writings Henniker Henry Salt horses human—animal boundary humans and animals Ibid idea insects Jude Jude the Obscure Jude's killed language letter Levinas living London look Madding Crowd Mallett means meat Möbius strip moral sense narrator explains natural world nonhuman animals notes novel pain perhaps perspective philosophical physical pig-killing poem Posthumanism question reader response scene seems sheep sheep-rot shift society species suffering suggests swamp term Tess Tess's things Thomas Hardy thought tion Troy Troy's ture University Press unknowability Victorian Victorian era vivisection woman word creature Yeobright