Looking at Animals in Human History

From the first humans' cave paintings to Damien Hirst's provocative animal installations: it seems we have been describing and portraying animals, in some form or another, for as long as we have been human. "Looking at Animals in Human History" provides a broad historical overview of our representations of animals, from prehistory to postmodernity, and how those representations have altered with changing social conditions.Taking in a very wide range of material, from Palaeolithic cave-paintings, to Medieval rituals and processions, to dead-animal portraiture in the seventeenth century, to the display of animals in trophy photography, to animals in postmodern art, Linda Kalof unearths many surprising and revealing examples of our depictions of animals.

She also examines animals in a broad sweep of literature, narrative and criticism: from Pliny the Elder's Natural history to Donna Haraway's writings on animal/human/machine interaction; and, from accounts of the Black Plague and histories of the domestic animal and zoos, to the ways that animal stereotypes have been applied to people to highlight hierarchies of gender, race and class.Well-researched and scholarly, yet readable and accessible, this book is a significant contribution to the human-animal story.

Featuring more than 80 illuminating images, and numerous extracts from historical and literary sources, the book brings together a wealth of information that will appeal to the wide audience interested in animals, as well as to specialists in many disciplines.