Thomas Hardy and Animals

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Anna WestCambridge University Press, 4/30/2017EAN 9781107179172, ISBN10: 1107179173Hardcover, 218 pages, 23.5 x 15.7 x 1.7 cmLanguage: EnglishThomas 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.IntroductionHardy's 'shifted [...] centre of altruism'an ethics of encounter and empathy1. What does it mean to be a creature?2. 'The only things we believe in are the sheep and the dogs'3. 'Artful' creatures, part oneanimal language4. 'Artful' creatures, part twocan a snake have a face?5. 'Artful' creatures, part three'pre-posthumanist' Hardy6. Useful creaturesrethinking Hardy's humanitarianism. Show more