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Literature
and Science
'Criminal Animals' and the Rise of Positivist Criminology: From Shakespeare
to Conrad and Norris (in progress) explores relations between
science, literature, and culture. Specifically, 'Criminal Animals' investigates
how depictions of criminals as animalistic affected the genesis of criminology
at the end of the nineteenth century. The use and functions of animal
metaphors and imagery are analyzed in two mutually dependent groups of
texts. These include 'literary' texts—English dramas and prose works
featuring criminals that were written between 1590 and 1900—as well
as their 'factual' counterparts, that is, accounts of crime offered by
pamphlets, court sessions, news reports, and theories of crime. (See publications
for relevant essays.)
Related talks:
•Lecture: "Evolving Images of Beasts in Eighteenth-Century
Britain" at: Anglistentag 2007 (23 - 26
September 2007) in Münster,
Sektion I "Defining the Human: Man-Animal Relations in Literature."
For more information (abstract) click here.
• Lecture: "Literarische Reflektionen zur Ethik im Umgang mit
Tieren" (Literary Reflections on Animal Ethics) for the WS 2006 –
2007 Ringvorlesung Literatur und Ethik (February 2007) Freiburg University
• Lecture: "Forms of Silencing and Disgrace: The Subjugation
of Animals and Torture in Abu Ghraib Prison with responses in J. M. Coetzee’s
Fiction" (November 2006) Basel University
•
Paper on "'Criminal Beasts' or Animal Liberation Philosophy—Why
are we so confused about animals?" at: Between Three: Arts –
Media – Politics, International Association for Philosophy and Literature
(June 2006) Freiburg University
• Paper on "The Oppress'd' or Merciless Canibals?: Confusions
about Prisoners in the Eighteenth Century" for the panel "Prison
in the Eighteenth Century" at American Society for Eighteenth Century
Studies (April 2006) Montreal, Canada
• Paper
on "Sexual Selection, Fiction, and Culture" for the seminar
"Science and Contemporary Literature: Convergences/Divergences"
at ESSE 7 (September 2004) Saragossa University
•
Paper on "Criminal Bodies in Literature and Penology" at the
conference "The Body as Interface: Dialogues between the Disciplines"
(June 2003) Bonn University
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