Bestial Oblivion

War, Humanism, and Ecology in Early Modern England

AvBenjamin Bertram

Inbunden, Engelska, 2018

Del i serien Perspectives on the Non-Human in Literature and Culture

2 768 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar. Fri frakt över 249 kr.

Fler format och utgåvor

Häftad

852 kr

E-bok

1 006 kr

E-bok

1 006 kr

Beskrivning

Although war is a heterogeneous assemblage of the human and nonhuman, it nevertheless builds the illusion of human autonomy and singularity. Focusing on war and ecology, a neglected topic in early modern ecocriticism, Bestial Oblivion: War, Humanism, and Ecology in Early Modern England shows how warfare unsettles ideas of the human, yet ultimately contributes to, and is then perpetuated by, anthropocentrism. Bertram’s study of early modern warfare’s impact on human-animal and human-technology relationships draws upon posthumanist theory, animal studies, and the new materialisms, focusing on responses to the Anglo-Spanish War, the Italian Wars, the Wars of Religion, the colonization of Ireland, and Jacobean “peace.” The monograph examines a wide range of texts—essays, drama, military treatises, paintings, poetry, engravings, war reports, travel narratives—and authors—Erasmus, Machiavelli, Digges, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Coryate, Bacon—to show how an intricate web of perpetual war altered the perception of the physical environment as well as the ideologies and practices establishing what it meant to be human.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2018-06-01
Mått:152 x 229 x 20 mm
Vikt:628 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Perspectives on the Non-Human in Literature and Culture
Antal sidor:294
Förlag:Taylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN:9781138708853

Utforska kategorier

Mer om författaren

Benjamin Bertram is Professor of English at the University of Southern Maine, USA. His publications include articles in the Routledge Handbook on Shakespeare and Animals (forthcoming), Modern Philology, English Literature, Exemplaria, and Boundary 2. His first book, The Time is Out of Joint: Skepticism in Shakespeare’s England, was published in 2004.

Recensioner i media

"Bestial Oblivion captures the messy collisions between humans, animals, and objects in early modern warfare. In venturing onto the battlefield, Bertram’s book marks a refreshing departure from the pastoral environments that have often detained ecocritics. Equipped with the latest insights of the New Materialism and Actor-Network theory, it illumines the new assemblages forged by war and travel in the era that preceded England’s rise as a global super-power."Todd A. Borlik, University of Huddersfield, UK"[...] this ambitious book makes a timely and significant contribution to early modern studies in its enmeshing the discourse of war with contemporary ecocritical and posthumanist theory."Rebecca Bushnell, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Innehållsförteckning

List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chapter 1 Erasmus and the Dung Beetle; or, Human Exceptionalism and Its Discontents; Chapter 2 Machiavelli, Virtù, and the Ecology of War; Chapter 3 Iron Men: Thomas Digges, A Larum for London, and the Elizabethan Cyborg; Chapter 4 War and Resilience: Tamburlaine the Great and the Anglo-Spanish War; Chapter 5 Bestial Oblivion in Shakespeare’s Hamlet; Chapter 6 Thomas Coryate, the Lousy Humanist; Chapter 7 Humanity Under Siege: Francis Bacon’s Human Empire and the Capitalocene; Author Index; Subject Index