Chad Weidner reviews Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture by Karen Raber

Weidner, Chad

English

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The Goose
Volume 14 | No. 1 Article 17
8-8-2015
Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture by Karen
Raber
Chad Weidner
Utrecht University, UCR
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Recommended Citation / Citation recommandée
Weidner, Chad. "Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture by Karen Raber." The Goose, vol. 14 , no. 1 , article 17, 2015,
https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol14/iss1/17.
Animals in Early Modern Culture 
 
Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture by 
KAREN RABER  
U of Pennsylvania P, 2013 $58.50 
 
Reviewed by CHAD WEIDNER 
 
Although there is a good deal of recent 
scholarship on material ecocriticism, as well 
as on the relationship between humans and 
animals, many questions remain 
unanswered. Karen Raber's Animal Bodies, 
Renaissance Culture brings these exciting 
areas together in a dense piece of academic 
writing. Her book explores the shared 
material space between humans and 
animals in the early modern period, and the 
deep complexity of those relationships. This 
book will be especially interesting for 
Renaissance scholars working in 
ecocriticism, as well as for those working in 
ecocriticism or animal studies. 
The structure of the book is 
scholarly but accessible. Five content 
chapters fit between a tight introduction 
and conclusion. The introduction provides 
important context for the book, as well as 
justifications for the study. Raber poses 
important questions here, and sums up the 
ambitions of the study: "This book begins to 
chart the questions and issues raised by 
early modern animal embodiment for both 
early modern and modern theories of the 
human" (5). The book exceeds an ordinary 
academic study by connecting to relevant 
wider discussions of human exceptionalism, 
animal rights, postcolonialism, and gender.  
The content chapters of the book 
are logically ordered. The first two chapters 
discuss horses in terms of the early modern 
fascination with anatomy, as well as the 
ways the animal connects to human 
thinking about eroticism. Chapters three 
and four cover forms of life ranging from 
mammals to parasites, from cats and dogs 
to worms. The fifth chapter discusses the 
important question of labour in the context 
of animals. While it is not possible to 
examine all of the chapters in detail here, a 
look at representative sections of the book 
can help provide a good sense of the 
arguments Raber puts forward. 
The chapter entitled "Erotic Bodies: 
Loving Horses" discusses the myriad ways 
early modern humans venerated horses, 
but also saw them as partner, and even as 
erotic symbol. Raber briefly reflects on the 
horse in Western mythology over time, and 
the ways in which the image of the centaur 
complicates assumed distinctions between 
the human and nonhuman. She then 
discusses poems that highlight the erotic 
nature of the human-horse relationship. 
Interesting are the ways the chapter begins 
with what seems a general literary reading 
of poems about horses to much more 
complex considerations of eroticism and 
even interspecies sex. While this chapter 
specifically considers horses as erotic 
subject, Raber argues that the discussion 
extends to other creatures, including "pets, 
various sorts of animals, and even plants" 
(80). This chapter is certainly thought 
provoking, and I would like to see Raber 
position her argument against Carol Adams' 
Sexual Politics of Meat. While Adams' book 
clearly has a different purpose and 
audience, many of the same issues echo 
between her book and Raber's chapter: 
Appropriation, subjugation, 
commodification, gender, and materiality.  
The fifth chapter of the book, 
"Working Bodies: Laboring Moles and 
Cannibal Sheep," discusses labor and 
property. More specifically, this chapter 
examines the mole creature in Hamlet, and 
the sheep found in Thomas More’s Utopia. 
1
Weidner: Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture
Published by / Publié par Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2015
In the first pages of this section, Raber 
provides contextual information regarding 
the mole that highlights its strange position 
as locus for various ideological arguments. 
One question that Raber poses is whether 
moles and animals more broadly have a 
right to their own labor. We can consider 
this fascinating question today, but as 
Raber rightly points out, such a concern was 
simply not part of the early modern 
discussion. She shows ways moles evade 
classification by humans. In the section of 
this chapter called "Cannibal Sheep," Raber 
contrasts the lowly but opportunistic mole 
with the pastoral image of the sheep in the 
Western imagination. She provides 
intriguing discussion of Thomas More's 
Utopia in terms of animals, labor, and the 
historical connections between humans and 
animals. She says that More already "laid 
the groundwork for challenging economic 
systems" (177) that apparently suggest that 
ownership is what separates humans from 
nonhumans. She also challenges the idea 
that "distinctions [can be made] between 
species on the basis of the work they do" 
(178). Thus, Raber effectively does the 
heavy lifting to show subtle cracks in our 
thinking about animals in the early modern 
period. 
Raber's book is a fascinating read, 
and I am left with a few lingering questions. 
I missed some of targeted connections 
Raber might have made to the scholarship 
of Randy Malamud, as well as to Simon 
Estok’s work, which seems especially 
relevant. I also think that materialist 
scholarship generally fails in explaining 
intangible qualities important to aesthetics: 
The power of art, the consciousness, and 
the human imagination. Moreover, there 
are still significant gaps in our 
understanding of nonhuman creatures. 
Thomas Nagel points out in "What is It Like 
to Be a Bat?" that our understanding of 
other creatures is ultimately only partial 
since "Our own experience provides the 
basic material for our imagination, whose 
range is therefore limited" (439). Thus, we 
have to acknowledge that our 
understanding of animals is terribly 
incomplete. At the same time, we should 
also recognize the essential otherness of 
nonhuman creatures. Therefore, readings 
of human cultural texts cannot fully handle 
the question of the animal. Raber's book is 
certainly successful in generating new 
questions. It brings human attitudes toward 
animals in the early modern period directly 
into the contemporary conversation in 
ecocriticism and animal studies. Highly 
recommended. 
 
Works Cited 
 
Nagel, Thomas. "What Is It Like to Be a 
Bat?" The Philosophical Review 83.4 
(1974): 435-50. 
 
CHAD WEIDNER teaches English and film at 
University College Roosevelt, Utrecht 
University, in the Netherlands. He has 
published on ecocriticism, experimental 
aesthetics, Dadaist film, William Burroughs, 
and other Beat Generation writers.  
 
2
The Goose, Vol. 14, No. 1 [2015], Art. 17
https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol14/iss1/17


Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture by Karen Raber

Wilfrid Laurier University

The GooseVolume 14 | No. 1 Article 178-8-2015Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture by KarenRaberChad WeidnerUtrecht University, UCRPart of the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, English Language and Literature Commons,European Languages and Societies Commons, Modern Literature Commons, and the Nature andSociety Relations CommonsFollow this and additional works at / Suivez-nous ainsi que d’autres travaux et œuvres:https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegooseThis article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Goose by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Cet article vous est accessible gratuitement et en libre accès grâce à Scholars Commons @ Laurier. Le texte a été approuvé pour faire partie intégrantede la revue The Goose par un rédacteur autorisé de Scholars Commons @ Laurier. Pour de plus amples informations, contactezscholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended Citation / Citation recommandéeWeidner, Chad. "Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture by Karen Raber." The Goose, vol. 14 , no. 1 , article 17, 2015,https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol14/iss1/17.Animals in Early Modern Culture  Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture by KAREN RABER  U of Pennsylvania P, 2013 $58.50  Reviewed by CHAD WEIDNER  Although there is a good deal of recent scholarship on material ecocriticism, as well as on the relationship between humans and animals, many questions remain unanswered. Karen Raber's Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture brings these exciting areas together in a dense piece of academic writing. Her book explores the shared material space between humans and animals in the early modern period, and the deep complexity of those relationships. This book will be especially interesting for Renaissance scholars working in ecocriticism, as well as for those working in ecocriticism or animal studies. The structure of the book is scholarly but accessible. Five content chapters fit between a tight introduction and conclusion. The introduction provides important context for the book, as well as justifications for the study. Raber poses important questions here, and sums up the ambitions of the study: "This book begins to chart the questions and issues raised by early modern animal embodiment for both early modern and modern theories of the human" (5). The book exceeds an ordinary academic study by connecting to relevant wider discussions of human exceptionalism, animal rights, postcolonialism, and gender.  The content chapters of the book are logically ordered. The first two chapters discuss horses in terms of the early modern fascination with anatomy, as well as the ways the animal connects to human thinking about eroticism. Chapters three and four cover forms of life ranging from mammals to parasites, from cats and dogs to worms. The fifth chapter discusses the important question of labour in the context of animals. While it is not possible to examine all of the chapters in detail here, a look at representative sections of the book can help provide a good sense of the arguments Raber puts forward. The chapter entitled "Erotic Bodies: Loving Horses" discusses the myriad ways early modern humans venerated horses, but also saw them as partner, and even as erotic symbol. Raber briefly reflects on the horse in Western mythology over time, and the ways in which the image of the centaur complicates assumed distinctions between the human and nonhuman. She then discusses poems that highlight the erotic nature of the human-horse relationship. Interesting are the ways the chapter begins with what seems a general literary reading of poems about horses to much more complex considerations of eroticism and even interspecies sex. While this chapter specifically considers horses as erotic subject, Raber argues that the discussion extends to other creatures, including "pets, various sorts of animals, and even plants" (80). This chapter is certainly thought provoking, and I would like to see Raber position her argument against Carol Adams' Sexual Politics of Meat. While Adams' book clearly has a different purpose and audience, many of the same issues echo between her book and Raber's chapter: Appropriation, subjugation, commodification, gender, and materiality.  The fifth chapter of the book, "Working Bodies: Laboring Moles and Cannibal Sheep," discusses labor and property. More specifically, this chapter examines the mole creature in Hamlet, and the sheep found in Thomas More’s Utopia. 1Weidner: Animal Bodies, Renaissance CulturePublished by / Publié par Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2015In the first pages of this section, Raber provides contextual information regarding the mole that highlights its strange position as locus for various ideological arguments. One question that Raber poses is whether moles and animals more broadly have a right to their own labor. We can consider this fascinating question today, but as Raber rightly points out, such a concern was simply not part of the early modern discussion. She shows ways moles evade classification by humans. In the section of this chapter called "Cannibal Sheep," Raber contrasts the lowly but opportunistic mole with the pastoral image of the sheep in the Western imagination. She provides intriguing discussion of Thomas More's Utopia in terms of animals, labor, and the historical connections between humans and animals. She says that More already "laid the groundwork for challenging economic systems" (177) that apparently suggest that ownership is what separates humans from nonhumans. She also challenges the idea that "distinctions [can be made] between species on the basis of the work they do" (178). Thus, Raber effectively does the heavy lifting to show subtle cracks in our thinking about animals in the early modern period. Raber's book is a fascinating read, and I am left with a few lingering questions. I missed some of targeted connections Raber might have made to the scholarship of Randy Malamud, as well as to Simon Estok’s work, which seems especially relevant. I also think that materialist scholarship generally fails in explaining intangible qualities important to aesthetics: The power of art, the consciousness, and the human imagination. Moreover, there are still significant gaps in our understanding of nonhuman creatures. Thomas Nagel points out in "What is It Like to Be a Bat?" that our understanding of other creatures is ultimately only partial since "Our own experience provides the basic material for our imagination, whose range is therefore limited" (439). Thus, we have to acknowledge that our understanding of animals is terribly incomplete. At the same time, we should also recognize the essential otherness of nonhuman creatures. Therefore, readings of human cultural texts cannot fully handle the question of the animal. Raber's book is certainly successful in generating new questions. It brings human attitudes toward animals in the early modern period directly into the contemporary conversation in ecocriticism and animal studies. Highly recommended.  Works Cited  Nagel, Thomas. "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" The Philosophical Review 83.4 (1974): 435-50.  CHAD WEIDNER teaches English and film at University College Roosevelt, Utrecht University, in the Netherlands. He has published on ecocriticism, experimental aesthetics, Dadaist film, William Burroughs, and other Beat Generation writers.   2The Goose, Vol. 14, No. 1 [2015], Art. 17https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol14/iss1/17

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Animal Bodies, Renaissance Culture by Karen Raber

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