Hunting Troubles (Hardcover)

Laura Beck

ISBN 10: 3031702220 / ISBN 13: 9783031702228

Published by Springer International Publishing AG, 2025

Hardcover. This volume examines the cultural history of European and North American hunting from the Middle Ages to the present day from the perspective of gender as well as animal studies. It demonstrates that the hunting and killing of animals was (and still is) a highly codified activity that creates, reinforces, and sometimes undermines a variety of differences. This construction and deconstruction of difference applies not only to the relationship between humanity and animality but also to the relationships between human agents with respect to their gender. By applying a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, this collection dissects the many ways in which huntingoften classified as a typically male activityparticipates, on the one hand, in the naturalization of gender differences and related binary asymmetries but, on the other, can sometimes open up a space in which gender boundaries become unsettled and blurred. More than any other activity, the practice of huntingwhich is controversial at least in terms of animal ethicsseems to lend itself to the negotiation of both what is perceived as human and what as animal and what is seen as masculine and what as feminine. This volume examines the cultural history of European and North American hunting from the Middle Ages to the present day from the perspective of gender as well as animal studies. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9783031702228

Synopsis:

This volume examines the cultural history of European and North American hunting from the Middle Ages to the present day from the perspective of gender as well as animal studies. It demonstrates that the hunting and killing of animals was (and still is) a highly codified activity that creates, reinforces, and sometimes undermines a variety of differences. This construction and deconstruction of difference applies not only to the relationship between “humanity” and “animality” but also to the relationships between human agents with respect to their gender. By applying a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, this collection dissects the many ways in which hunting―often classified as a “typically male”’ activity―participates, on the one hand, in the naturalization of gender differences and related binary asymmetries but, on the other, can sometimes open up a space in which gender boundaries become unsettled and blurred. More than any other activity, the practice of hunting―which is controversial at least in terms of animal ethics―seems to lend itself to the negotiation of both what is perceived as human and what as animal and what is seen as masculine and what as feminine.

About the Author:

Laura Beck is a postdoctoral researcher in German and Comparative Literature at the University of Hannover, Germany. She has published widely on postcolonialism and German literature, comparative literature, intermediality, and travel writing. She has also published several articles on the representation of hunting in contemporary literature and film and is currently working on a book on hunters as liminal figures in literature and culture from the nineteenth century to the present.

Maurice Saß is Professor of Art History at the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences, Germany. He has published several books and articles on the history of the hunt, early modern gender politics, and animals in early modern art. He is currently preparing a new book on the historical intersections of art and hunting.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Hunting Troubles (Hardcover)
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG
Publication Date: 2025
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: new