The Early Modern Species Translated: Understanding Species Adjacency in Early Modern Texts

Abstract

This thesis explores attitudes toward nonhuman species in an effort to account for the acceptance of talking and reasoning animals in pre-Cartesian literature. It analyzes early modern Bestiaries and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to see how various species are addressed in different genres and conventions. Through these explorations we see that the human-animal divide, rather than staying rigid as one expects, is marked by its fluidity and acceptance of shared traits.