"The Politics of Animal (Auto)Biography: Black Beauty to Cat Internet Videos

This talk examines the often complicated liberal politics of speaking for animals in the form of animal autobiography. With a focus on the Victorian era, I examine how although animal autobiography was used to encourage animal welfare, it often reinscribed animals into oppressive hierarchical relationships. I also gesture toward how we see Victorian forms of animal autobiography today through an analysis of popular cat Internet videos.

Anna Feuerstein is an Assistant Professor in the department of English at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, where she teaches classes on Victorian literature and culture, post-colonial studies, and animal studies. She just completed her full-length manuscript, Liberal Creatures: The Political Lives of Animals in Victorian Literature and Culture, which examines how liberal political thought impacted representations of animals in animal welfare discourse and the Victorian novel.

Event Sponsor
Center for Biographical Research, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 956-3774, biograph@hawaii.edu, http://www.facebook.com/CBRHawaii

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