03374nam a2200421 a 4500 ebr10641605 CaPaEBR m u cr cn||||||||| 100218s2010 paua sb 001 0 eng d 2010004557 9780812242492 (acid-free paper) 0812242491 (acid-free paper) 9780812201369 (e-book) CaPaEBR CaPaEBR (OCoLC)794700690 PR149.A7 B64 2010eb 820.9/374 22 Boehrer, Bruce Thomas. Animal characters [electronic resource] : nonhuman beings in early modern literature / Bruce Thomas Boehrer. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2010. 238 p. : ill. Haney Foundation series Includes bibliographical references (p. [209]-227) and index. Introduction: animal studies and the problem of character -- Baiardo's legacy -- The cardinal's parrot -- Ecce feles -- The people's peacock -- "Vulgar sheepe" -- Conclusion: O blazing world. "Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird Bruce Thomas Boehrer" "'As both a fiction writer and a lover of parrots, I was delighted and enlightened by Parrot Culture. This is an enchanting book."---Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" "'Engrossing ... Bruce Thomas Boehrer concentrates his well-stocked mind on what over the centuries we humans have done to, and done with, parrots."---Times Literary Supplement" "During the Renaissance, horses---long considered the privileged, even sentient companions of knights-errant---gradually lost their special place on the field of battle and with it their distinctive status in the world of chivalric heroism. Parrots, once the miraculous, articulate companions of popes and emperors, declined into figures of mindless mimicry. Cats, which were tortured by Catholics in the Middle Ages, were tortured in the Reformation as part of the Protestant attack on Catholicism. And sheep, the model for Agnus Deiimagery, underwent transformations at once legal, material, and spiritual as a result of their changing role in Europe's growing manufacturing and trade economies. While in the Middle Ages, these nonhumans were endowed with privileged social associations, personal agency, even the ability to reason and speak, in the early modern period they lost these qualities at the very same time that a new emphasis on, and understanding of, human character was developing in European literature." Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. : ebrary, 2013. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ebrary affiliated libraries. Animals in literature. Characters and characteristics in literature. English literature Early modern, 1500-1700 History and criticism. European literature Renaissance, 1450-1600 History and criticism. Symbolism in literature. Animals, Mythical, in literature. Animals in art. Electronic books. local ebrary, Inc. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/rucke/Doc?id=10641605 An electronic book accessible through the World Wide Web; click to view 42885 42885