Thesis
Innocents under attack: animal experimentation and the rise of the child in nineteenth century British children's fiction
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/104460
Abstract
Vivisection is the act of live- animal dissection and experimentation. During nineteenth century Britain as this practice gained prominence, the animal emerged as an object of study. Counter to this scientific movement, anti-vivisectionist and animal rights activists sought to posit the animal not just as an object, but as a subjective being. While this history has long been established through such works as Richard French's Antivivisection and Medical Science in Victorian Society, the complex intersection of this history with the child has yet to be explored. The child and the animal as liminal figures often draw the focus of the creative and scientific mind. Their relationship, particularly in the nineteenth century, is one of immense interest, as demonstrated by Tess Cosslett's Talking Animals in British Children's Fiction. Using a Darwinian model for understanding the developing and evolutionary status of these two figures, this project explores the way in which the child as an object of study emerged in relation to the experimental animal in nineteenth century children's literature. The texts examined in this project include Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies (1863), Anna Sewell's Black Beauty (1877), Gordon Stables' Sable and White (1895), and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908). Beginning as obscure objects, the child and animal both move through varying degrees of subjectivity in these works. Framed through the history of vivisection and literary analysis, this project draws from diverse fields of research, including medical humanities, animal studies, scientific history, childhood studies, and literary studies. The work in the project allows for the further exploration of the child within these frames. As the nineteenth century child is so tied to our contemporary understanding and valuation of childhood, this research helps inform our current moment and our understanding of the child, animal, and science.
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Details
- Title
- Innocents under attack
- Creators
- Hallie Kaiser
- Contributors
- Roger Whitson (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- English, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525109001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis