Introductory Lecture Animals in Literature Dr Ema Vyroubalova

Introductory Lecture Animals in Literature Dr. Ema Vyroubalova

“The Fox and the Grapes” A famished fox, seeing some bunches of grapes hanging in a tree, wanted to take some, but could not reach them. So he went away saying to himself: “Those are unripe. ” [From The Complete Fables; translated by O. and R. Temple, Penguin, 1998]

Aesop (Αἴσωπος) Legendary creator of the fables 7 -6 th century BCE (? ) ugly, disfigured (? ) freed slave (? ) from Samos or Ethiopia (? )

BABRIUS and PHAEDRUS First surviving versions of the fables Babrius in Greek, 2 nd century CE Phaedrus in Latin, 1 st century BCE 1 st century CE Babrius MS page, 3 rd or 4 th century CE, BL London

William Caxton’s edition, 1484

“The Cock and the Jewel” As a Cock once sought his pasture in the dunghill he found a precious stone to whom the Cock said: “Ha, a fair stone and precious thou arte here in the filth. And if he [who] desireth thee had found thee as I have, he should have taken thee up and set thee agein in thy first estate but in vain I have found thee. For no thing I have to do with thee nor no good I may do to thee nor thou to me. ” And this fable said Esope to them that read this book. For by the cock is to [be] understood the fool which retcheth [cares] not of sapyence nor of wisdom as the Cock retcheth … not by the precious stone and by the stone is to [be] understood this fair and pleasant book.

Editions of Aesop’s Fables from around the globe

Wolf & Lamb fable from Caxton

A cat’s point of view

Anthropocentric emphasis on utility of animals material utility (What can they do for people? ) allegorical utility (What can they mean for people? )

“Vegetable Lamb of Tartary” John Mandeville’s Travels, 1356 “And there groweth a manner of fruit, as though it were gourds. And when they be ripe, men cut them a-two, and men find within a little beast, in flesh, in bone, and blood, as though it were a little lamb without wool. And men eat both the fruit and the beast. And that is a great marvel. Of that fruit I have eaten, although it were wonderful, but that I know well that God is marvellous in his works. ”

Early Modern Period/ Renaissance (16 -17 th c. ) Both humans and animals as part of “great chain of being” Interest in both hybridity/continuity and differences between different species (including animals and humans) “Cataloguing” of animals: combining empirical and traditional sources of information Impact of exploration of areas unknown to Europe in Middle Ages (Americas, southern Africa, SE Asia)

Michel de Montaigne (153392) “[Man] believes himself to be God’s equal, ascribing to himself divine attributes, that separates himself from the mass of other creatures… How does he know, by the effort of intelligence, what inwardly and secretly moves the animals? By what comparison of them with ourselves does he deduce the stupidity which he attributes to them? When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not making me her pastime more

Aristotle (385 -323 BCE) Animals have only a sensitive soul; humans have both sensitive and rational soul. Montaigne (1533 -1592) Animals are moral and rational than people. Descartes (1596 -1650) Only humans have souls; animals are like organic machines.

Edward Topsell (1572 -1625) History of Serpents, 1608 History of Foure-footed Beast, 1607

Cebus Capucinus (Capuchin Monkey)

Enlightenment (c. 16501800) Legacy of Descartes’ concept of the “beastmachine” Systematic proto-scientific cataloguing, classifying (pre-Darwinian) Most of the world mapped (+new animals described) Anthropomorphic and anthropocentric use of animals continues in literary works (but shifts from allegorical to symbolic use of animals)

Descartes’s Beast. Machine The fact that they [animals] do better than we do does not prove that they have a mind, for, if that were the case, they would have more of it than any of us and would do better in all other things; it rather shows that they have no reason at all, and that it is nature which has activated them according to the arrangement of their organs— just as one sees that a clock, which is composed only of wheels and springs, can keep track of the hours and measure time more accurately than we can, for all our care. From Discourse on the Method in the Sciences, René Descartes, 1637 If Brutes, as Learned Bards of late would prove Are only Engines, and like Clock-work move, Say, how my dearest Bird, my charming Dove, Knows that destructive Ill, has sense of love? From “The Turtle, an Elegy, by Clarissa” The Gentleman’s Journal III, 1694

Jeremy Benthan on Animals, 1823 "Other animals, which, on account of their interests having been neglected by the insensibility of the ancient jurists, stand degraded into the class of things. . The day has been, I grieve it to say in many places it is not yet past, in which the greater part of the species, under the denomination of slaves, have been treated. . . upon the same footing as. . . animals are still. The day may come, when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may come one day to be recognized, that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps, the faculty for discourse? . . . the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? . . . The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes. . . " From Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

Questions: 1. Why do writers choose to use animals in their texts 2. Why do the authors choose the particular animals they do? 3. What do the animals mean and, even more importantly, how do they mean? 4. What is the relationship between animals and humans in the texts that feature both "species"? And in the texts that have only animals what does the absence of humans do? 5. What kind of changes in the literary representation and function of animals do we see across the almost roughly 1, 000+ years we will be covering in the series