Thomas Hardy and animals

by West, Anna

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Title Statements

Full title :Thomas Hardy and animals / Anna West.

Summary

"Thomas 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"--

Edition Statements

Publication Date:©2017

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):Cambridge University Press
Place of Publication:Cambridge, United Kingdom
Language:eng
Publication Date:©2017

The Physical Object

Description:ix, 210 pages ; : 24 cm

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9781107179172, 1107179173
oclc:ocn964380077
LC Classification:PR4757.A625
Dewey Decimal:823/.8

Introduction : Hardy's "shifted ... centre of altruism" : an ethics of encounter and empathy -- What does it mean to be a creature? -- "The only things we believe in are the sheep and the dogs" -- "Artful" creatures, part I : animal language -- "Artful" creatures, part II : can a snake have a face? -- "Artful" creatures, part III : "can they suffer?" -- Useful creatures : rethinking Hardy's humanitarianism.