Investigation of the literary history of animal, being and rights, chiefly in English/Anglophone, poetry and fiction circa 1770-2000 but extending, back to Homer, Genesis, Aesop, Aristotle,, Descartes, and other authors' works prior to the, outset of the animal-rights era and its key texts, by Anna Barbauld, Robert Burns, Samuel Taylor, Coleridge (esp. "The Rime of the Ancient, Mariner"), William Wordsworth, Anna Sewell (in, Black Beauty), and others. We'll explore, what such narratives reveal about the complexity, and ethical perplexity of our relationships to, nonhuman creatures, and the uncanny vistas they, help us to glimpse. We'll also read some relevant,, fairly recent animal-rights theory and philosophy,, and students will conduct some basic research.
- Teacher: Kurt Fosso