Page numbers refer to the print edition but are hyperlinked to the appropriate location in the e-book.
abjection: of animality, 68; of Aunt Hester, 91; in slavery, 93; and subject formation, 36
abolition, and animal welfare, 226n59
Abu Ghraib: abuse of prisoners at, 33, 41, 42; animal representation at, 66–76; bestialization of prisoners at, 48; commentary on, 44–45
Abu Ghraib, images out of: abuse documented with, 66; bestiality portrayed in, 69, 70, 70 fig.; as metaphor, 70; racialization in, 72–73, 73 fig.; role of gender in, 69, 219n112; wider audience for, 66–67
abuse, and human exceptionalism, 42
adoption, mutual, of autobiographical animal, 181
Aesop’s Fables, 34–35; Locke’s recommendation of, 141; popularity of, 145
Aesop’s Fables in French, 146
aesthetics, philosophical, 189
affect: in biopolitical state, 11; language and, 7; and liberal subject formation, 107; and ontological categories, 110; and ontological difference, 6; politics of, 237n10; post-structuralist approach to, 6; power relations and, 28; regulation of, 118; and role of pet, 244n1
affection, and transitional objects, 175. See also intimacy
affective relationship: to animals, 32; of pet dog, 184–185
affective turn, 135, 236n1; in literary and critical theory, 7
affect studies, 37; language in, 137
affect theory: dichotomy between emotion and affect in, 136; humans distinguished from animals in, 37; Locke’s pedagogy in, 138–139; ontological questions posed by, 154; ontology of human in, 135; post-structuralist, 134; public and private in, 137
affect theory, post-structuralist, liberal imagination and, 134–138
African-American writing, animal imagery in, 86
Agamben, Giorgio, 11, 12, 13, 14, 48, 75, 77, 96, 102, 196n30; and “bare life,” 126; on biopolitics, 15–16, 77; on biopower, 12, 36, 43, 60; on the “creaturely,” 161; on law as process of inclusive exclusion, 211n51; thanatopolitics of, 18
Agassiz, Jean Louis Rodolphe, 85
agency, distinguished from subjectivity, 200n58
agricultural economy, bestiality in, 53
alien other, as symbol of matters sexual, 215n71. See also the other
alphabets, function of, 152
alterity, 190; of animal’s death, 18, 130; and identity, 35, 133; Lévinas’ definition of, 229n91; of love, 65; in Millie’s Book, as Dictated to Barbara Bush, 169; radical, 134, 138, 154–155; and relationship between animals and humans, 5; species as marker of, 4; in terms of founding irreciprocity, 17. See also the other; radical alterity
Althusser, Louis, 74; on work of interpellation, 75
America, intimate encounters with animals in, 209n38
American literature, 28–33; animal representations in, 21, 189; animals in 19th-century, 29, 30; biopolitical subjectivity in, 187; formation of, 138; impact of Locke’s pedagogy on, 136; “literal animals” in, 22; and politics of countermodernity, 19–21; uses of representation in, 110; wilderness in, 215n73
analysis, organ of, in phrenological science, 113
anatomical literalization, 114
androcentrism: of Aristotle, 87; and bestiality, 58–59
Anglo-American Enlightenment, 138
animal, animalized, 71, 72; slave as, 101
animal, humanized, 44; guard dog as, 103; Iraqi detainee as, 72; military working dogs, 74; slave-hunting dog as, 101
animal alphabets, 19th-century vogue of, 152
animal autobiography, 27, 76, 164, 242n42; biopolitical domination in, 186; and biopolitics, 157–158, 158; Black Beauty, 244n3; encounter value in, 173; genre of, 38, 157, 250n60; as “it-narrative,” 179–180; Millie’s Book, 18, 38, 166–174, 186; poem written by canine author in, 182; popularity of, 167; Sigurd Our Golden Collie, 179–186, 181, 251n70; subgenre of, 167; topography of, 177; two distinct forms of, 167–168
animal bodies: as objects of analysis, 113; symbolic order in relation to, 109; transformation of, 190
animal death, and community, 18
animalia, definition of, 189
animality: abjection of, 68; as affirmative biopolitical site, 106; and biopower, 43; defining, 28, 200n58; extralegal position of, 131; Holocaust’s disavowed, 229n90; humanized, 104, 105; and humanized animal, 44; meaning of, 43; in Poe’s stories, 120; and position of nonsignification, 103; sexed, 45; of slaves, 81; and social order, 42; subjectivity premised on alterity produced by, 106; for 19th-century phrenologists, 123; use of term, 48–49; Western attitudes toward, 102
animalization, of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, 68
animal liberation, call for, 64
Animal Liberation (Singer), 4
animal love, 32; in American literature, 15
“animal lovers,” in Western literature, 207n16
animal magnetism, 121; Poe’s interest in, 128
animal relations, and reconfigured subjectivity, 138
animal representations, 187; at Abu Ghraib, 66–76; and affective engagement, 136–137; and affective relationships, 138; in American literature, 19, 189; and animal exclusions, 20; bestiality as paradigmatic instance of, 50; and biopolitical relationships, 13; and biopolitical subjectivity, 48; and biopower, 186; concept of, 43; and construction of subjectivity, 2–3; Dickinson’s experimentations with, 134; in English-language literature, 145; function of, 39; and liberal subjectivity, 136; and literary skills, 142; in literature, 33; Locke’s writing on, 141; as mediators, 19; and modernity, 46; ontology unsettled by, 68; in Poe’s fiction, 110, 111; and subject formation, 3; for subjectivity and its relationship to representation, 74; as transitional objects, 164
Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (Sunstein and Nussbaum), 4
animal rights advocacy, 4
animal rights movement, 3; post-structuralism and, 5–6
animals: categories of, 22, 42, 189; changing attitudes toward, 21; as children, 54; defining, 28; emotional contradictions of human engagement with, 6; excluded from legal subjectivity, 56; extralegal position of, 35; fictional representation of, 145 (see also animal representations); and our humanity, 38; as property, 5; rational and natural, 195n16; as sentient beings, 4, 194n10; subject formation for, 175–176; and subject formation in distinction from nature, 145; suffering of, 64; wild, 22, 60. See also companion animals; maintenance animals
animals, domestic, 6; lack of human relationship with, 46; slaves linked with, 124; in Victorian art, 233n36
animals, kindness to, in Locke’s pedagogy, 140
animals, role of, in child development, 138
animal’s first-person perspective, and speakerly subjectivity, 117–118
“animal sign,” racial stereotypes and, 81
animal sounds, as alternate discourse, 76
animal studies, 144; as American phenomenon, 11–12; approaches to, 7–8; and biopolitics, 10–11; biopower in, 13; and cultural specificity, 28; expansion of, 189–190; feminist care approach to, 197n45; as interdisciplinary inquiries, 191; literary, 249–250n53; literary approach to, 20–21; and literary studies, 188; and postcolonialism, 24; post-structualism, 5; and thanatopolitics, 63–66; two branches of, 3–4
animal welfare activism, 141
animal writing, 98; Dickinson’s parody of, 148–149
animated corpses, in Poe’s stories, 129, 130
Anthony, Col., in Douglass’ Narrative, 88–90, 91–92
anthropocentrism: of Aristotle, 87; and bestiality, 58–59; continuity of, 8; post-structural criticism of, 5; and power relations, 27–28
anthropomorphic center, 165
anthropomorphism, 20; affect-based critical, 7
anti-Semitism, Lévinas on, 102
Aristotle, 13, 14, 43; distinguished from Descartes, 228n82; feminist critiques of, 223n30; on human speech, 95; notion of character in, 98–99; on slavery, 87, 93
auto-affection, Derrida’s argument on, 178
autobiography: confessional, 180, 185; English, 180; hermeneutic codes of, 180; self-interpretation of, 180; women’s, 180–181. See also animal autobiography
“bare life,” 79, 235n69; abject position of, 43; biopolitics of, 126; notion of, 125
Bates, Katharine Lee, 158, 185; animal autobiography of, 179; research of, 182, 183
beastliness: notion of, 55; quality of, 60
beastly: category of, 36; use of term, 48
beasts, animals abjected as, 6
Bellantoni, Christina, 1, 2
bestiality, 15; at Abu Ghraib, 41; and alternative modes of representation, 106; and American biopolitics, 50–63; from animal rights perspective, 207n12; and biopower, 34, 211n51; as capital offense, 208n31; categorizing, 204n111; in colonial New England, 50–51; death penalty for, 215–216n74; decline in literal acts of, 47; defined by penetration, 53; disappearance of, 52; Douglass’ treatment of, 84, 86–87, 88; estimates for, 209n37; and gendering of subjectivity, 57; as grounds for divorce, 209n37; history of, 51; history of sexuality as history of, 158; language of, 210–211n49; laws regarding, 212–213n55; legal prosecution of, 34; literature condemning, 210–211n49; Oxford English Dictionary definition of, 88; persecution of women for, 53–54; pervasiveness of, 46; in Poe’s stories, 116–117; popular responses to, 208–209n33; power differential in, 46; as primal scene of slavery, 91; public nature of, 188; and “puppy love,” 133, 165; in slave narrative, 91; social context for, 54–55; sodomy associated with, 51, 68; of soldiers’ rape of captives, 217–218n91; special status of, 52–53; in Sweden, 52; as taboo subject, 31; use of term, 31, 48
bestiality, criminalization of, 15, 33–34, 44, 46, 208n31, 212–213n55; in colonial New England, 51; functions of, 47; public quality ascribed to, 55; and witch trials, 53–54, 209n42
bestiality trials, 30; example of, 54; in New Haven, 212n53; subjectivity negotiated in, 58
bestialization: of slave, 101–102; symbolic representation of, 70
binary categories, of gender distinction, 179
binary thinking: animal rights in, 195n16; logic of, 5
biology, subjectivity to discipline of, 169
biopolitical order, 67; at Abu Ghraib, 67; and challenge of bestiality, 62
biopolitical systematization, 190
biopolitical theory: in America, 11–12; and sovereign power, 11–12
biopolitics, 10; affirmative, 160, 173; alternative, 19; and animal autobiographies, 157–158, 158, 186; animal origins of, 36, 84; and animal representations, 2, 26; of “bare life,” 126; commercialization of animal life in, 162; commodities, 164–173; discipline of, 170–171; genre of, 167; language and literacy in, 95; and liberal subjectivity, 184; of life, 12; as neocropolitics, 14; objects of, 160–164; and popularity of animal autobiographies, 167; of population, 10; power of, 11; power relations in, 16; queering, 173–186; and resistance to power, 15–16; and slavery, 36; species in, 38; spontaneous multiplication in, 80; subject formation and, 80; subjectivity produced by, 76; thanatological, 6, 15, 16–17
biopolitics, American: bestiality and, 50; emergence of, 15
biopower, 10, 31; affective, 38; affirmative, 12; Agamben’s interpretation of, 60; American, 50, 106; in American literature, 109; and animal aspirations, 186; animals overlooked in, 46; and animal studies, 13; and bestiality, 211n51; and commodity culture, 161; and constructions of subjectivity, 76; death and desire in, 15; defining, 12; in development of capitalism, 80; development of modern, 44; discipline imposed by, 174; Foucault’s theory of, 12; and function of wolf-man, 44; and gender as category of analysis, 13; historical emergence of, 161; and human/animal binary, 33; mechanism of, 43; and modernism, 22; objectification as mechanism of, 38; and slavery, 78; underpinnings of, 14; vectors of, 10. See also bestiality
bios: and animal representations, 39; in colonial law, 34; defining, 13; G. Agamben’s interpretation of, 60; and zoopolitics, 97. See also zoē
Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse (Sewell), 244n3
bodies: as form of techne, 197n35. See also animal bodies
the body: ahuman universe in, 128–129; attitudes toward food’s influence on, 210n48; and discourse, 47; as locus of interpretation, 120–125; nonhuman perspective on, 48; ontology of, 127; and subject formation, 9. See also animal bodies; embodiment
bourgeois subjectivity, and culture of pet keeping, 143
Bo (White House dog), 1–2
Bradford, Gov. William, 50, 54
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 177, 178
brutality, humanized human’s, 71–72
brutes: Iraqi detainees as, 72; slaves as, 94
Buffon, George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de, 21
Bulliet, Richard W., 33, 46, 47
camera, functions of, 67. See also Abu Ghraib, images out of
capitalism: and biopolitics, 161; and biopower, 161; impact on nonhuman animals of, 23–24; and rise of biopower, 79
Cartwright, Dr. Samuel, 85, 86
case studies, 20, 23, 28; queer-authored, 173
children: alternative subjectivities for, 164; as animals, 54; anthropomorphizing of, 246–247n25; and dog as human substitute, 174; human(e) rearing of, 115–120; Locke’s pedagogic view of, 139; moral education for, 118; relationship to animals of, 147; relation to animals of, 115–116; and species barriers, 165; and subject formation in distinction from nature, 145; treatment of animals of, 139
children’s education: animal representation in, 142; Locke’s view of liberty and dominion in, 139–140; relationship to animals in, 239–240n21; role of animals in, 146, 147; in 19th-century, 134; and understandings of subjectivity, 133
children’s literature: animal biography in, 247–248n30; Locke’s influence on, 145–146; 19th-century, 116, 117; treatment of animals in, 117
Christian theology, animal rights in, 64. See also Puritan theology
classification systems, instability of, 189
Clough, Patricia Ticineto, 80
colonial era: illicit intercourse defined in, 53; rape in, 224n35
colonialism: biopolitics of, 14; and biopower, 33; role of animal in, 24. See also Plymouth Plantation
colonization, violence associated with, 68
commodification: and liberal subject formation, 107; modern totemism as, 213–214n63; of modern urban life, 24; of pets, 186; and subject formation, 157
companion, Dickinson’s use of term, 144
companionship, and pet love, 32
companion species, 25, 144; dogs, 73 (see also dogs); relationship with, 65–66; and slavery, 81; working relationship with, 66, 72, 101, 103
compassion, and emotional relationship to animals, 140, 239–240n21
construct animal, position of, 20
consumer capitalism, and biopolitics, 161
consumerism, conservative, Mother’s Day in, 164
contract, society as, 111
Covey, Edward, in Douglass’ Narrative, 87, 106
creatures, pets as, 23, 186
crime nonfiction genre, 110
crimes against society, 53
criminal justice system: codifications and erasures of subjectivity of, 109; narration in, 110–111
“crisis of distinctions,” 25
cross-species affection, 32
“cross species identification,” in Douglass’ Narrative, 93
cross-species relationships, and definition of human, 9
cruelty, Locke on cause of, 141
culture: biopolitical subjectivity in, 187; heterosexual overdetermination of, 175
cyborg characters, in science fiction, 128
death, and logic of sacrifice, 18
“death of possibility,” 18
Democracy in America (de Tocqueville), 85
derealization, violence of, 68–69
Derrida, Jacques, 3, 6, 10, 44, 151, 178, 179, 194n7, 205–206n6; on animal autobiography, 176; carnophallogocentrism coined by, 205–206n6; fantasized position of subjectivity of, 185; Lacan criticized by, 92, 176; notions of otherness of, 126; on violence of killing animals, 211n51
Descartes, René, 26–27, 85, 91; on animals as machines, 93; distinguished from Aristotle, 228n82; on literary character, 98
detainees: animalization of, 73–75; depicted as animalistic, 45; position of, 66
detective fiction: genre of, 110; narrative of subjectivity in, 111; Poe’s, 111; Poe’s story as first work of, 231n12; social deaths produced in, 111
deterritorialization, notion of, 196n30
Dickinson, Emily, 18, 37, 76, 134; on animal and human subjectivity, 151; animal orthography of, 152–153, 154; death of dog of, 143–144, 154; and Lockean notions of subject formation, 142–143; and Lockean pedagogy, 37; and noise as form of expression, 148, 149; poetry made animate by, 149, 151; and relationship to animals, 142–143; resistance to “admonition” of, 149; use of simile by, 148
didactic separation, Dickinson’s resistance to, 149
differentiation, mechanisms of, 44
discipline: in animal autobiography, 181; of colonized people, 67. See also power relations; punishment
discourse: of affective relationship with animals, 30; Derrida on history of, 180; relationship between body and, 8–9, 47
discovery, literature of, 208n27
discursivity, limits of, 95
doggedness, symbolizations of, 123
dog imagery, in Douglass’ Narrative, 88
dog leash: in Abu Ghraib image, 69, 70 fig.; in Abu Ghraib prison abuse, 66; visual iconography of, 71
dog narrative: sub-genre of, 157; 19th-century popularity of, 157–158. See also animal autobiography
dogs: in Abu Ghraib prison abuse, 66; as domestic heroine, 174; First Dogs of U.S., 1–2, 158, 159, 159 fig., 164, 165, 170, 174; as humanized animal, 103–104; intermediary position of, 74–75; knowledge located in bodies of, 105; in literary construction of subjectivity, 145; military working, 73 fig., 74, 219–220n117; Muslim attitudes toward, 72–73, 219n116; in role of wolf-man, 44; slave-hunting, 82 fig., 100–101; in 19th-century children’s literature, 146, 147; White House, 158, 159 fig.
“dog writing,” as feminist theory, 144
Dog Years: A Memoir (Doty), 168
domination, and role of pet, 244n1
Douglass, Frederick, 36, 76, 81, 162, 173; animal similes of, 93; on logic of slavery, 84; relational subjectivity of, 104–105; as slave author, 94; slavery discourse of, 86. See also Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 239n21
Eliot, T. S., on Edgar Allen Poe, 115
embodiment: conditions of, 5; cultural importance of, 8; literature as symbolic core of, 36; posthuman, 9; reasoning separated from, 134; representation and, 4
emotion: as hallmark of subjectivity, 65; as interpretive act, 136; in philosophical aesthetics, 186; in politics, 135; theoretical interest in, 237n4
encounters, and alterity, 190
encounter value, 162; multiple, 185; in women’s autobiographies, 181
Enlightenment modernity, 26
erasing, use of term, 194n7
ethical capacity, of humans, 104
ethical turn, in literary and critical theory, 7
ethics, and ulterior subjectivities, 190
ethnicity, and criminalization of bestiality, 51. See also bestiality
ethnology, American school of, 85
evolution: in cultural analysis, 202n90; Darwin’s theory of, 25; and human/animal divide, 188
exceptionalism: American, 12, 198–199n48; as object of criticism, 12; of U.S. violence, 45
exceptionalism, human, 65; abuse enabled by, 42; and slavery, 85
experiencing, and relationship between symbolic and literal, 163
fables: of Aesop, 97–98; popularity of, 97; tradition of, 34–35
Fabulous Histories (Trimmer), 146
family: normative categories of, 190; postmodern, 166
family values, extolled in Millie’s Book, as Dictated to Barbara Bush, 172
“Farewell to the British People” (Douglass), slavery’s symbolic order in, 105
feeling: and affective engagement with animals, 6; and animal embodiment, 191. See also emotion
Feeling in Theory (Terada), 136
feminist theory, animal studies as, 144
the figurative, association with literal of, 49–50
First Dogs, U.S.: Bo, 1–2; documentation of, 188; Millie, 158, 159, 159 fig., 164, 165, 170, 174
first family, as dog lovers, 32
Fischer, David Hackett, 212n53
fornication, compared with bestiality, 213n56
Foucault, Michel, 9, 10–11, 13, 33, 57, 95, 161; on analytics of sexuality, 78; biopolitics of, 173, 191; on flogging, 90; homo oeconomicus of, 36, 79–80, 84, 96; notion of biopower of, 12, 16, 43, 78, 162
Fowler, Lorenzo Niles, 122, 123
Fowler, Orson Squire, 122
freedom, idea of, slavery and, 78
Freudian theory, Darwinian theory and, 30
the frontier, and animal representation, 22
gay men: animalizing, 51; and colonial persecution of bestiality, 51
gaze: alternative to male, 179; of animal protagonist, 184; cat’s, 179
gender: in Abu Ghraib images, 69, 219n112; and biopolitical subjectivity, 11; and biopolitics, 173; and criminalization of bestiality, 51; matrix of, 58; normative categories of, 190; as social construct, 36, 84, 143
gender, role of: in formation of subjectivity, 143; in Millie’s Book, as Dictated to Barbara Bush, 171
gender-discourse formation, 56
gendered status, animals excluded from, 59
gender politics, sentimentality in, 174
gender solidarity, transnational, 160
genteel domesticity, and culture of pet keeping, 143
Gliddon, George Robert, 85
Goetschel, Antoine F., 54
Great Chain of Being, Christian theologians’ belief in, 64
guard dogs, 50; in Abu Ghraib prison abuse, 66. See also dogs
Haraway, Donna, 24, 25, 50, 65–66, 72, 103, 144, 162, 173, 181, 196n31; autre-mondialisation used by, 176–177
Hayles, N. Katherine, 8, 9, 10, 128
Herder, Johann Gottfried, 95–96
hermeneutic genre, autobiography as, 180
Hester, Aunt, in Douglass’ Narrative, 36, 76, 84; animalism of, 96; embodied voice of, 91, 94; flogging of, 89–90; inherent humanity of, 92; nakedness of, 90; punishment of, 88
heteronormative social structures, 166
heterosexuality, sexual behavior outside of, 52
heterosexual matrix, 58, 246n23; and modern nation-state, 165
Higginson, Col. Thomas Wentworth, 152; Dickinson’s correspondence with, 143–144; on human-animal relations, 144–145
history: animal representations in alternative, 21; of animals, 188; monolithic account of, 13–14; role of animals in, 23, 26; of sexuality, 30, 78, 158, 188
homoerotic gratification, of photos of tortured prisoners, 67
homo oeconomicus, 84, 107; in detective fiction, 111; notion of, 79–80; self-interest of, 123
homo sacer (sacred man): and “bare life,” 43; of Roman law, 13
homosexuality, bestiality associated with, 51. See also queer
household pets, and biopolitics, 13. See also companion species; pets
human: category of, 42; as construct, 24–25; defining, 188; equating “body” with, 9; as separated from nature, 5. See also nonhuman
human, animalized, 72; detainees as, 74; in Nazi detention camp, 102; slave as, 101
human, humanized, 71; army sergeant as, 72
human/animal, binary of, 125
human-animal relations: animal representation in, 46; and biopower, 51; “crisis of distinctions” in, 25; and liberal subject formation, 135–136; and modernity, 26–27; sympathetic, 23
Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (1978), 219n111
human exceptionalism: abuse enabled by, 42; companion animals and interaction with, 65; and slavery, 85
humanism: and Holocaust, 229n90; pluralization in, 8
humanity: animalized, 104; and animalized human, 44; and biopower, 43; in Douglass’ Narrative; as form of subjectivity, 97; in Poe’s stories, 120; relational understanding of, 96–97; and relationship with body, 100; as sentiment, 141; teaching children, 147
Hume, David, 36; on animal reasoning, 93; on individual choices, 79
hybridity: Agamben’s analysis of, 44; created by bestiality, 55; of gender and species, 179; in Poe’s stories, 123
Iago (Shakespearean character), 122–123
identification, sentimental, 95
identity: alterity and, 35; and Holocaust, 229n90; self-discovery of female, 180; sexual, 176, 179; in slavery’s symbolic order, 106–107; trans-personal, 137
imagery, animal: in African-American writing, 86; to describe slaves, 123; in Poe’s stories, 123–124; in Shakespeare, 122–123; and slavery, 100. See also animal representations
incest, prohibition against, 57
infantilization: and animal relations, 133; Dickinson’s use of, 145; and puppy love, 165
information technologies, 10
inhuman, use of term, 214n70. See also nonhuman
insanity plea, in Poe’s stories, 233n34
“in-sanity,” Poe’s theme of, 127
“inter”: concept of, 9; definition for, 197n36
internal object, concept of, 163
interpellation: examples of, 74; by guard dog, 76. See also Althusser, Louis
interspace, for animal and human differences, 190
interspecial communication, 103
interspecies intercourse, colonial concern about, 53
interspecies relationships, 188; intimacies within and across, 12; lady and lapdog, 174
intersubjective relations, 12
intersubjectivity, recognizing emotional, 104
intimacy: and alterity, 190; and colonial control, 14; communicative function of, 137; and estrangement, 249–250n53; familial, 2; interspecies, 174; and transitional objects, 175
intimate self, defining, 32
Kafka, Franz, animal stories of, 29
Katz, Jonathan Ned, 51, 53
kindness, expressed by animals, 97
kindness to animals, 118; in 19th-century children’s literature, 147
kinship, and pet love, 32
von Krafft-Ebing, Richard, 31
lady and lapdog trope, 174
language: and affect, 7; animal representations in, 21; capacity to use, 27; genealogy of, 151; and human exceptionalism, 85–86; origin of, 95–96; and pain, 91–92; and phrenology, 122; relationship with feeling of, 137; and sense making, 127; slave, 90; as tonal, 127; voice at core of, 95; voice compared with, 94
law: and animal bodies, 125; and animals as murderers, 112–113; animals’ relationship to, 204n118; and construction of human, 55–56; in encounter with animals, 131; in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 112, 131; and notions of subjectivity, 126
learning, Locke’s view of, 139. See also children’s education
leash. See dog leash
L’Espanaye, Madame, in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 130
The Liberal Imagination (Trilling), 134
liberalism: animals as integral to, 9–10; humans distinguished from animals in, 37; Lockean, 142; pluralization in, 8; Trilling on definition of, 134; utilitarianism, 4. See also humanism
liberal subject formation, 138; in animal autobiography, 169; humanist framework of, 135
liberal subjectivity: animal alphabet, 152; and animal representations, 26; animals as mediators for, 146; and biopolitics, 184; death of, 153; and neoliberal subject formation, 157–158
liberty: and biopower, 60; in Puritan theology, 59–61, 62
life forms, differentiating between, 13
linguistic instability, and conventions of affect, 137
linguistic turn, in literary and critical theory, 7
literacy: and liberal subjectivity, 136; linked to family values, 172
literalism, of Poe’s stories, 130
literary analyses: of animals, 22; phrenological, 122
literary contexts, animal representation in, 20
literary criticism, origins of, 122
literature: animal representations in, 33, 145–146; 19th-century, 134. See also American literature; children’s literature
Locke, John, 10, 15, 27, 79; educational philosophy of, 97, 115, 136; educational writings of, 34–35, 76; on education of children, 138–141; engagement with animals of, 239n19; on humane conduct to animals, 140; on slavery, 220–221n1; Some Thoughts Concerning Education of, 138
love: alterity of, 65; animal, 188. See also emotion; intimacy
lynching: photos of, 68; and response to photos of prisoner abuse, 67
machines, displacement of animals by, 201n79
maintenance animals: and death’s presence, 17–18; naming of, 19
male gaze, alternative to, 179
“man’s best friend,” role of, 3
marital iconography, of 1950s, 169
Marley and Me (Grogan), 168
marriage, in nonhuman species, 166
materiality, meanings of, 47
Mbembe, Achille, on necropolitics, 14
meaning, body as locus of, 106
meaning making, 85; modes of, 155; in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 130; and ratiocination, 109
medieval era, attitudes toward animals in, 212n53
medieval peasants, existential dualism of, 22–23
medieval theology, bestiality in, 216n84
“Mesmeric Revelations” (Poe), 121
mesmerism, Poe’s interest in, 128
metaphor: animal’s role as, 151–152; animetaphor, 151, 153; and children’s relationship to animals, 147; definition of, 70–71; images read as, 70; metamorphic positions created by, 103, 152; reversibility of, 71
military power, and animal representation, 3
Millie’s Book, as Dictated to Barbara Bush, 38, 158, 186; authorship of, 172; biopolitical discipline demonstrated in, 170–171; classified as nonfiction, 172; coding of nakedness in, 171; commercial success of, 167, 174; family values advertised in, 172–173; in public idiom, 171; radical alterity of, 169; romantically coded encounter in, 168; sexual commodification of, 166; spousal object role in, 169; theory of sexuality of, 166–167
miscegenation: and anxiety about bestiality, 215–216n74; cross-species, 57
modernism, and animal representation, 22
modernity: colonial, 24; defining, 25–26; and notion of figura, 50; relationship between human and non-human life in, 27; and representation of things, 35, 110; taxonomizing of, 26
moral education, relationship to animals in, 118
morality, crime against, 53
Morton, Samuel George, 85
motherhood: nostalgic framing of, 166; portrayed as embarrassment, 171
“Mother’s Day Proclamation,” 160
murder, definition of, 112
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (Poe), 76, 125; Detective Dupin’s investigation in, 112; human and animal subjectivity in, 113; limits of law in, 126; locating subjectivity in, 111–115; Ourang-Outang in, 112, 113, 126, 130, 131; sense making in, 112
My Bondage and My Freedom (Douglass), 81, 82 fig., 83 fig., 100
naming, of maintained animal, 19
narration, bodily, 98, 119; and engendered subjectivity, 86–87; physical expression of, 100
narrative: of racial degeneration, 67
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Douglass), 84; embodiment of language in, 95; Hester’s bondage in, 84–100; metaphorical body of, 99; portrayal of Covey in, 93; shame in, 89–90; voice in, 90, 91, 94, 95, 96. See also Hester, Aunt
narrator, in “The Black Cat,” 119–120
nationalism, underpinnings of, 28
Native Americans: in Puritan theology, 60–61; relationships to animals of, 215n72
nature, and domesticity, 119
necropolitics, biopolitics as, 14
neroscience, and affect theory, 237n8
New England, bestiality trials in, 50
noise, as form of expression, 148, 149. See also voice
nonhuman: animals defined as, 19; and political representation, 11
Obama, President Barack, 1, 38
objectification: in animal autobiographies, 186; as mechanism of biopower, 38
object relations, and thing theory, 163
Oedipal status, of pets, 65, 190
Oedipal triangle, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” as, 114
Of Plymouth Plantation 1620–1647 (American urtexts), 54
On the Origin of Species (Darwin), 25
ontology, 24, 127, 188; affect and, 6, 110; and affect theory, 135, 154; “didactic,” 147; unsettled by animal representations, 68, 195n16
“Original” sin, Locke’s invocation of, 140
orthography, animal, Dickinson’s use of, 152–153, 154
orthography, animal presence in, 152
the other, 190; animal function as, 35; face-to-face encounter with, 103; figurative treatment of animals(ized), 38; “immanent,” 5. See also alterity
Ourang-Outang, 112; in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 126, 130, 131; synonym for, 113
pain: calling out in, 96; and language, 91–92
pain, avoidance of, and individual’s self-interest, 36–37
patriarchy: compulsory heterosexuality under, 58; women’s relationship with animals sentimentalized by, 144–145
patriotism, American, and sexuality, 45
peace movement. See also Mother’s Day
peasants, existential dualism of, 22–23
pedagogy, and formation of subjectivity, 144. See also Lockean pedagogy
personhood: child’s entry into, 139; literary, 98
Peterson, Christopher, 138
pet keeping: in 18th-century England, 24; urbanization and, 22
pets: affective relationships with, 165; animals sentimentalized as, 6, 190; and biopolitics, 13; double animation of, 186; meaning of term, 22; memory and memorializing of, 250n55; presidential, 37–38; sentimental investment in, 65; slaves referred to as, 124; in Victorian literature, 241n32
photographs: and biopolitical order, 67; of prison abuse, 66–67. See also Abu Ghraib, images out of
The Picture Alphabet (Cousin Daisy), 150 fig., 152
“Pictures” (Douglass), 105
Pilgrim’s Pride chicken-processing plant, 69
pleasure, in Puritan theology, 62
Plymouth Plantation, 15, 185; bestiality as grounds for divorce in, 209n37; criminalization of bestiality at, 48; legal prosecution of bestiality at, 34
Poe, Edgar Allan, 22, 107, 109; animal imagery of, 123; animality separated from humanity in works of, 120; animal representations of, 35; animals in work of, 114–115; and animal theory, 125; “The Black Cat,” 115–116, 121, 122; on children and animals, 115–120; crime fiction of, 35, 133; as crime writer, 110; criticism of, 114; “The Gold Bug,” 124–125; interest in phrenology of, 121–122; “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 111–115; poetic composition of, 126–127; poetic works of, 110; punning of, 129; racial politics of, 114; relationship to Locke of, 117; relation to animals in stories of, 124–125
poetry, and relationality of animals, 155
poetry, Dickinson’s, extrasocial liveness of, 153
political contexts, lack of animal representation in, 20
political representation, language-based, 42
politics: of affect, 237n10; gender, 174; of population, 80; Trilling’s assessment of, 135
population: and biopolitical theory, 184; biopolitics of, 10; and biopower, 190; as species, 11
pornography, and response to photos of prisoner abuse, 67
postdomestic society, relationships to animal sex in, 47
posthuman, theorizations of term, 196n32
posthumanism, 250–251n64; as alternative to animal studies, 8, 196n31; and biopolitics, 10–11; of Edgar Allan Poe, 128; embodiment in, 9; and liberalism, 9
poststructuralism, 3, 5, 28, 194n7; intentionality and iterability in, 118; rights discourse and, 109
power relations: the body in, 47; Foucault on, 10; and nationalism, 29; of parents and children, 139
Practical Education (Edgeworth and Edgeworth), 239–240n21
president, U.S., and animal representation, 3
presidential executive power, and rule of exception, 12
presidential pets, 37–38, 158. See also First Dogs
prisoners, abuse of, 33. See also Abu Ghraib
prison guards, animals used by, 66. See also dogs
private, role in liberal society of, 137
“prognathous,” use of term, 85
property: crime against, 53; genetic, 223n27; slavery and, 78
prostitution, bestiality associated with, 210–211n49
psychoanalytic criticism, of Poe’s works, 115
psychoanalytic theory, 161
public, role in liberal society of, 137
punishment: of colonized people, 67; Locke’s writing on, 238n16. See also discipline
puppies, as anthropomorphized subjects, 165
“puppy love,” 15, 37; Barbara Bush’s account of, 174–175; bestiality rewritten as, 107, 133, 158; mothers’ affective agency as, 164; teenage romance as, 166; transformation of, 185; use of term, 165
Puritanism: concept of figuration in, 49; and modern animal relations, 207–208n23; sexual intercourse in, 61
Puritan theology: human-animal relationships in, 62; liberty in, 59–61, 62; racial hierarchy in, 60–61; sexual transgressions and, 56–57, 57
queer family, reimagining, 185
queer subjectivities, 173
queer theory, and focus on human, 173
race: as marker of alterity, 4; as social construct, 36, 84
racial categorization, of 19th-century phrenologists, 122
racial degeneration, imperial narrative of, 67
racial differences, as species distinctions, 51
racial hierarchy, of Puritan theologians, 60–61
racialized subject, in American cultural discourse, 189
racial stereotypes, and “animal sign,” 81
racism: Lévinas on, 102; logic of, 123; and systems of signification, 131
ratiocination: defined, 109; Poe’s staging of, 124; Poe’s tales of, 129, 130; writing tales of, 110
rationalism, Cartesian, 96
realism, and animal autobiography, 167
reasoning, separated from embodiment, 154
reciprocity: of human-animal relationship, 181; and subjectivity, 177–178
relationality, for maintained animal, 17
religion: and attitudes to animals, 55, 210n47; and construction of human, 56. See also Christian theology; Puritanism
religious vocabulary, secularizing, 160
representation: political, 20; relationships of, 72. See also animal representations
restraint, in Puritan theology, 62
rhetorical training, supplanted by alphabetization, 152
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, educational philosophy of, 239n21
rural areas, intimate encounters with animals in, 209n38
sacred man of Roman law, 13, 43
same-sex encounters, dehumanizing, 51
same-sex relationship, difference involved in, 210–211n49
same-sex sexuality: bestiality associated with, 52; in Sweden, 52
Sánchez-Eppler, Karen, 142
de Saussure, Ferdinand, 102
scapegoating, animality displaced via, 24
science: and changing attitudes toward animals, 21; impact on human exceptionalism of, 85
sense making, in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 112, 127
sensibility, culture of, human-animal interactions in, 23
sensory experience, in Poe’s stories, 129
sentient beings, animals as, 80
sentiment: embodied, 100; humanity as, 141
sentimentalism: and animal autobiography, 167; and animal connections, 142; and “puppy love,” 37; and subject formation, 133
sentimentality: discourse of, 96; in gender politics, 174
sex: in Abu Ghraib prison abuse, 66; animal-human, 51; as sociological category, 56
sexual difference, impact of patriarchy on, 216–217n87
sexual identity, construction of, 176, 179
sexuality: and abuse at Abu Ghraib, 45; analytics of, 78; of animals in American literature, 30; and biopolitical subjectivity, 11; and biopolitics, 173; for formation of subjectivities, 45; history of, 158, 188; human-animal, 25, 30, 54; as marker of alterity, 4; modernization of, 210–211n49; and nationalism, 28; normative categories of, 190; in Puritan theology, 61; and shift from sovereignty to biopower, 78
sexual practices, and species-crossing boundaries, 34
sexual preference, and self-definitions, 32
sexual relations between species, regulation of, 46
sexual violence, and crossing of species line, 68
Shakespeare, William: animal images of, 234n49; and human-animal relations, 98
shame, and divide between human beings and animals, 89
Shesadri-Crooks, Kalpana, 58
signature, authorial subjectivity of, 171–172
signification: in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 130; in Poe’s stories, 131
signifyin’, 71; in Douglass’ Narrative, 92–93; and voice, 94
simile: animal, 71; and children’s relationship to animals, 147; Dickinson’s reinvention of, 148; images read as, 70
slave narratives, 27; suffering in, 91; voice in, 94. See also Douglass, Frederick; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
slavery: American context for, 106; and animal imagery, 100–101; animalized humanity of, 92; Aristotle’s theories on, 87, 223n28; biopolitics and, 36; and biopower, 190; biopower and, 33; comparison between human and animal, 86; Douglass on dehumanizing character of, 99; embodied sentiment of, 100; grand aim of, 87; and necropolitics, 14; in Poe’s stories, 114; as social death, 77; symbolic economy of, 87; Virginia debates on, 124
slavery, symbolic order of, 90, 93; abstract language of, 86; and beast fables, 97–98; and bodily narration, 98; cruelty endemic to, 107; existence of brutes in, 94; in “Farewell to the British People,” 105; violence inherent in, 106
slaves: animality of, 81, 84; animalization of, 101; associated with animals, 86; hypersexuality attributed to, 87; linked with domestic animals, 124; negation of gendered subjectivity of, 87–88; as nonpersons, 77; rights of, 195n14; sexual acts against, 88, 224n31; songs of, 99–100
Smith, Sgt. Michael J., 41, 46, 72, 73 fig.
social aggression, Lévinas on, 102
social body, society as, 111
social necessity, and relationship to animals, 239–240n21
social order, human power relations in, 29
society, crimes against, 53
sodomy: at Abu Ghraib, 67; association of bestiality with, 44, 51; bestiality as synonym for, 89; as crime against nature, 52; crime of, 53; death penalty for, 215–216n74; discourse around, 48; opposition between marriage and, 210–211n49; social, 210–211n49
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (Locke), 138
sovereign power, 43–44; and exceptionalism, 12; G. Agamben on, 13
sovereignty: biopower compared with, 78; and racialized displacement of animality, 24
species: and affective relationships, 6; as marker of alterity, 4; and nation, 29; as social category, 56; social construction of, 143
species boundary crossing, 33
species distinctions, 8; impact of patriarchy on, 216–217n87
spiritually, reserved for human beings, 181
spontaneous multiplication, dialectic of, 95
state: governmentalisation of, 10; individual vs. collectivism in, 10
Stockton, Kathryn Bond, 164, 174
subject formation: and animal biography, 168; and autobiographical animal, 176; and autobiographies, 167; in biopolitical state, 11; and biopolitics, 80; commodification and, 157; gendered, 145; heteronormative, 175; Lacan’s argument for, 175–176; in Poe’s stories, 125–130; role of voice in, 75–76; in state, 10
subjectivity, 65; and affect theory, 134; and alterity, 190; alternatives for, 162, 164, 178; animal participation in, 180; and animal question, 114; and animal relations, 126; and animal studies, 3–4; basic capabilities necessary for, 25; and beastly, 133; biopolitical, 11, 187; categories of, 162; and cross-species encounters, 24; dividing human beings from animals in construction of, 41–42; ethical, 104; experience and, 178; formation of gendered, 43; fundamental assumptions of, 87; gendering of, 178–179; and interaction with companion animals, 114; locating, 111–115; in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 112; and object relations, 161; in Poe’s stories, 113–114, 131; reciprocity and, 177–178; relational, 163, 178; and relationality of animals, 155; representational, 42; and self-interest of homo oeconomicus, 123; trans-personal, 137; use of term, 200n58
subjectivity, speakerly, and animal’s first-person perspective, 117–118
suffering: of animals, 96; Bentham on, 63–64; embodied language of, 107; and human/animal divide, 188; semantics of, 64; in slave narrative, 91; of slaves, 95
Sweden, regulation of sexual practices in, 51–52
symbolism, employed by infant, 163–164
symbolization, crisis of, in Poe’s stories, 128
sympathy, Adam Smith’s theory of, 226n69
taste, Poe’s understanding of, 129
taxonimization, animal representations in, 189
technology: in binary thinking, 8; and definition of human, 9
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, 12
thanatopolitics, 76, 160; operative logic of, 18; semantics of, 62
Theophrastus, notion of character in, 98–99
Thoughts on Education (Locke), 15, 116
de Tocqueville, Alexis, 85
torture, 45; of animals, 232–233n30; rhetorical analogy between rape and, 88; in war on terror, 218–219n110. See also Abu Ghraib
torturers, identification with, 66
totem, Freud’s interpretation of, 57–58
transitional objects: animals as, 246n20; Bates’ dog, 183; defined, 163; Millie (White House Dog), 175; use of term, 164
Trilling, Lionel: on definition of liberalism, 134–135; on politics of culture, 135
urbanism, and cruelty to animals, 233n33
urbanization, 30; and attitudes toward animals, 21–22
victimization, in contrast to vulnerability, 90
victims: inhuman, 205–206n6; in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” 130
Victorian period: animal activism of, 194n10; animals in, 250n55; interest in wolf-man of, 206n7
violence: and affective engagement with animals, 6; in chicken-processing plant, 69; colonial, 48; gendered, 68; love as antidote to, 65; metamorphic, 72; nonpermissible vs. permissible, 71; and power relations, 28; racialized, 68; and relationship between animals and humans, 5; and species boundary crossing, 33; of U.S., 45
violence, state: animals in, 101; animals instrumentalized to enact, 73
voice: in animal autobiography, 157, 185; Dolar on uses for, 94–95; in Douglass’ Narrative, 90, 91, 94, 95, 96; “object,” 94–95; in phrenology, 123; in position of sovereignty, 75; presymbolic uses of, 94; in slave narratives, 94; vs. having language, 94
voice, animal: in Poe’s stories, 124; power of, 167
voyeurism, in bestiality trials, 55
vulnerability, in contrast to victimization, 90, 195n19
Western philosophy, relationship to animals in, 13–14
White House, and animal representation, 3. See also Bo; Millie
White House Press Corps, 1–2, 188
wilderness, in early American literature, 215n73
wilderness/civilization dichotomy, in Puritan theology, 62
Winthrop, Gov. John, 50, 59–61, 60, 61, 72, 84, 101, 119, 206n10
wolf-man, 55, 113; Agamben on, 43–44; creating, 69–70, 70 fig.; cultural specificity of, 206n10; dogs as, 44; in Freudian theory, 58; of Germanic law, 13, 43–44; Iraqi detainee racialized as, 72; in literature, 206n7; Native Americans as, 61; in Poe’s stories, 123; slave as, 101
women: autobiographies of, 180–181; and bestiality, 213n60; and crime of sodomy, 53; intimate encounters with animals of, 209n38; in Poe’s stories, 126; rights of, 195n14; solidarity for, 160; and subject formation in distinction from nature, 145
writers, as speakerly subjects, 157
writing: African-American, 86; and subject formation, 152
zoē: Agamben’s interpretation of, 60; and animal representations, 39; in colonial law, 34; defining, 13; and zoopolitics, 97. See also bios