The Illumination of the Animal Kingdom

The Role of Light and Electricity in Animal Representation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8099232
AutoresJonathan Burt (0000-0002-7328-0643, autor correspondente)
Ano2001
Volume9
Fascículo3
Páginas203-228
Data de publicação2001-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociety and Animals (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1063-1119 • E-ISSN: 1568-5306
EditoraBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/156853001753644381
OpenAlexW2003380887
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas25
Referências citadas2

This essay addresses the subject of animal representation via an historical account of the place of the animal in visual culture. It emphasizes the relationship between the animal as a visual image and the technology that produces this image. It explores three examples in a period covering c. 1895 to the 1930s, in Britain, that analyze the relations between animal representation, technology, and the public domain. These are film, zoo display, and slaughterhouse practice. The overall goal of the essay is to move away from emphasis on the textual, metaphorical animal, which reduces the animal to a mere icon, to achieve a more integrated view of the effects of the presence of the animals and the power of its imagery in human history. "[s]i l'animal a le temps, s'il est «constitué» par un «temps»" ["[w]hether the animal has time, whether the animal is 'constituted' by a 'time.'"] (Derrida, 1999, p. 273

Biology · Domestication · Human animal · Icon · Political science · Power (physics · Representation (politics · Computer Science · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Visual Culture and Art Theory · Ecology · Law