Description
Book SynopsisA collection of essays that explore the role of performing animals in literature, theater, art, and other media prior to the twentieth century, and discuss recent theoretical work in animal studies, materialism, and posthumanism.
Trade Review“Ten terrific essays in animal studies from the perspective of performance.”
—Henry S. Turner SEL: Studies in English Literature
“This superb collection brings together leading scholars and historians to explore cutting-edge questions surrounding animal agency and performativity. Employing theoretical frameworks ranging from animal studies to the new materialisms, these essays demonstrate that the varied and various sites of animal performance are among the most fecund places from which to think about relations between humanity and animality.”
—Matthew Calarco,author of Thinking Through Animals: Identity, Difference, Indistinction
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Karen Raber and Monica Mattfeld
1 Animals at the Table: Performing Meat in Early Modern England and Europe Karen Raber
2 Intra-Active Performativity: Rethinking the Early Modern Equestrian Portrait Pia F. Cuneo
3 Past Performances: Gleanings from the Archives About Early Modern Equine Athletic Performance Richard Nash
4 “I See Them Galloping!”: War, Affect, and Performing Horses in Matthew Lewis’s Timour the Tartar Monica Mattfeld
5 Peaceable Kingdom: The Place of the Dog at the Nativity Scene Rob Wakeman
6 Performing Pain: The Suffering Animal in Early Modern Experiment Sarah E. Parker
7 Circus Minimus: The Early Modern Theater of Insects Jessica Wolfe
8 Shakespeare’s Insect Theater: Fairy Lore as Elizabethan Folk Entomology Todd Andrew Borlik
9 Miss Mazeppa and the Horse with No Name Kari Weil
10 Horses Queer the Stage and Society of Shenandoah Kim Marra
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
