ABSTRACT
Literary animal studies is a protean field: an encounter with criticism asks us to shift focus from a Derridean critique to agility training, from vermin to acts of Parliament, and from personification to exceptionalism—all while negotiating corollary transitions in concepts and methodologies. The evocation of affect in literary animal studies today transcends various, particular perspectives, connecting, for instance, vermin, personification, and acts of Parliament: affect is a common denominator for critical approaches to the representation of animals. Barrett Browning’s poem shows how disruptive cross-species intimacy outlives its early eighteenth-century satiric format. This human–animal love scene lacks the triangular erotic structure of the lapdog lyric, but in its place it creates an erotic scenario through its reference to Pan. “Flush or Faunus” indicates the durability of disruptive cross-species intimacy in the modern literary engagement with animals.
