Political animals: Dogs and the discourse of rights in late Eighteenth-Century print culture

Milka, Amy 2020. Political animals: Dogs and the discourse of rights in late Eighteenth-Century print culture. Romantic Textualities (23) , pp. 237-256. 10.18573/romtext.81

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Abstract

This article argues that that during the political upheaval of the 1790s, the discourse of rights was mobilised to discuss the social, legal and political status of animals and humans. Notions of animal rights were just beginning to take shape towards the end of the eighteenth century. Changing beliefs about animal sentience, rationality and feelings, and social and moral concerns about animal cruelty, slowly brought the issue of animal welfare before the public. Historians have been inclined to view animal rights as the logical conclusion of the extension of the ‘rights of man’ down the social scale. This article contends that in print culture, animals were used as cyphers for their human owners. By giving voices to animals and characterising them as politically active and informed, a variety of literary productions demonstrated the methods of social, legal and political resistance available to their readers.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History J Political Science > JA Political science (General) P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History P Language and Literature > PR English literature Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Z004 Books. Writing. Paleography
Publisher:	Cardiff University Press
ISSN:	1748-0116
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	16 November 2020
Date of Acceptance:	18 September 2019
Last Modified:	03 May 2023 06:25
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/136398

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