Animalia: An Anti-Imperial Bestiary for Our Times

"Spanning the 19the and 20th centuries, Animalia examines the role of animals across jurisdictions of British imperial control. In this unconventional approach to both animal and imperial studies, contributors challenge the boundaries between animal and non-animal worlds by illustrating how and why a variety of real and mythical "creatures" shaped the history of modern anglophone empire. The bestiary offers a non-linear approach to thinking imperial power, its limits and possibilities, through a history of symbolic and material animal forms"--
The contributors to Animalia analyze twenty-six animals&;from yaks and vultures to whales and platypuses&;that played central roles in the history of British imperial control.
From yaks and vultures to whales and platypuses, animals have played central roles in the history of British imperial control. The contributors to Animalia analyze twenty-six animals&;domestic, feral, predatory, and mythical&;whose relationship to imperial authorities and settler colonists reveals how the presumed racial supremacy of Europeans underwrote the history of Western imperialism. Victorian imperial authorities, adventurers, and colonists used animals as companions, military transportation, agricultural laborers, food sources, and status symbols. They also overhunted and destroyed ecosystems, laying the groundwork for what has come to be known as climate change. At the same time, animals such as lions, tigers, and mosquitoes interfered in the empire's racial, gendered, and political aspirations by challenging the imperial project&;s sense of inevitability. Unconventional and innovative in form and approach, Animalia invites new ways to consider the consequences of imperial power by demonstrating how the politics of empire&;in its racial, gendered, and sexualized forms&;played out in multispecies relations across jurisdictions under British imperial control. Contributors. Neel Ahuja, Tony Ballantyne, Antoinette Burton, Utathya Chattopadhyaya, Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller, Peter Hansen, Isabel Hofmeyr, Anna Jacobs, Daniel Heath Justice, Dane Kennedy, Jagjeet Lally, Krista Maglen, Amy E. Martin, Renisa Mawani, Heidi J. Nast, Michael A. Osborne, Harriet Ritvo, George Robb, Jonathan Saha, Sandra Swart, Angela Thompsell