ABSTRACT

Interspecies Interactions surveys the rapidly developing field of human-animal relations from the late medieval and early modern eras through to the mid-Victorian period. By viewing animals as authentic and autonomous historical agents who had a real impact on the world around them, this book concentrates on an under-examined but crucial aspect of the human-animal relationship: interaction.

Each chapter provides scholarly debate on the methods and challenges of the study of interspecies interactions, and together they offer an insight into the part that humans and animals have played in shaping each other’s lives, as well as encouraging reflection on the directions that human-animal relations may yet take. Beginning with an exploration of Samuel Pepys’ often emotional relationships with the many animals that he knew, the chapters cover a wide range of domestic, working, and wild animals and include case studies on carnival animals, cattle, dogs, horses, apes, snakes, sharks, and invertebrates. These case studies of human-animal interactions are further brought to life through visual representation, by the inclusion of over 20 images within the book.

From ‘sleeve cats’ to lion fights, Interspecies Interactions encompasses a broad spectrum of relationships between humans and animals. Covering topics such as use, emotion, cognition, empire, status, and performance across several centuries and continents, it is essential reading for all students and scholars of historical animal studies.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

Action, reaction, interaction in historical animal studies

part 1|72 pages

Empathy, emotion, and companionship

chapter 2|32 pages

Sleeve cat and lap dog

Affection, aesthetics and proximity to companion animals in Renaissance Mantua

chapter 3|21 pages

Equine empathies

Giving voice to horses in early modern Germany

part 2|82 pages

Use and abuse

chapter 4|20 pages

The tale of a horse

The Levinz Colt, 1721–29

chapter 5|16 pages

Animals at the table

Performing meat in early modern England and Europe

chapter 6|26 pages

Blurred lines

Bestiality and the human ape in Enlightenment Scotland

chapter 7|20 pages

‘A disgusting exhibition of brutality’

Animals, the law, and the Warwick lion fight of 1825

part 3|61 pages

Self and other

chapter 8|21 pages

Inveterate travellers and travelling invertebrates

Human and animal in Enlightenment entomology

chapter 9|24 pages

Hungarian grey cattle

Parallels in constituting animal and human identities

chapter 10|16 pages

‘The Monster’s Mouth…’

Dangerous animals and the European settlement of Australia