Human cultures, including our own, are inter-species systems. Medieval hunters, householders, and herders relied on the labor, devotion, and mental abilities of domestic dogs. The new academic field of animal studies emphasizes the daily, material, and cognitive interactions of humans and animals.
For example, the hunting treatise of Gaston Phébus resists the medieval scientific distinction between human cognition and animal instinct. Narrating the conversion of a wolf into a livestock guarding dog, the Life of St. Modwenna ponders how domestication came about and how it participates in culture making. These medieval reflections on inter-species relationships demonstrate the inadequacy of defining “the human” as an autonomous, privileged, and securely defined category.
Speaker Susan Crane, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, specializes in English and French medieval literature and culture.
New York City, NY; NYC