Nineteenth-Century Pets and the Politics of Touch

University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--English English 2019 NINETEENTH-CENTURY PETS AND THE POLITICS OF TOUCH Valerie L. Stevens University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2019.389 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Stevens, Valerie L., "NINETEENTH-CENTURY PETS AND THE POLITICS OF TOUCH" (2019). Theses and Dissertations--English. 96. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/96 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--English by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Valerie L. Stevens, Student Dr. Jill Rappoport, Major Professor Dr. Michael Trask, Director of Graduate Studies NINETEENTH-CENTURY PETS AND THE POLITICS OF TOUCH ________________________________________ DISSERTATION ________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Valerie L. Stevens Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Jill Rappoport, Professor of English Lexington, Kentucky 2019 Copyright © Valerie L. Stevens 2019 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION NINETEENTH-CENTURY PETS AND THE POLITICS OF TOUCH Nineteenth-Century Pets and the Politics of Touch examines texts of the era in which both humans and animals find empowerment at the point of physical encounter. I challenge contemporary perceptions of human-pet relationships as sweetly affectionate by focusing on touch. I uncover an earlier interest in the close reciprocal relationships between human and nonhuman animals, arguing that these nineteenth-century thinkers presented what I call a “politics of touch,” in which intimate and often jarring physical encounters allow for mutuality and autonomy. I first turn to Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley (1849) and protective violence, a condoned ferocity that frequently unites and guards pet and pet keeper against unwanted amorous intrusions, while also showcasing animal agency and the possibility of deviation from the pet keeper’s wishes. Brontë’s animals simultaneously preserve and rework the traditional form of the marriage plot, allowing for powerful animal-centric possibilities. In chapter 2, I analyze the affective maternal and erotic bonds between women and their pets in Olive Schreiner’s novels. While this touch was frequently seen by both protofeminists and people antagonistic to women’s rights as a cause for disdain because affection was supposedly misplaced, it is a crucial part of Schreiner’s feminist project in that it provides forms of maternity outside of the socially mandated wifehood and motherhood that Schreiner so resents for stripping women of their autonomy. For chapter 3, I seek to complicate readings of Count Fosco, the compelling villain of Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White (1860), to show the disquieting sympathy that privileges odd women and animals. Heeding Count Fosco shows that valuable sympathy is not a pretty picture of a lovely woman walking with her purebred dog, but rather the excessively grotesque images of an unattractive woman holding a dying dog in her arms and mice and birds erotically clamoring over a fat man’s body. The final chapter considers the violent sympathetic touch evidenced in the practice of mercifully killing grieving dogs in Frances Power Cobbe’s animal advocacy texts. I argue that Cobbe’s schema recognizes gender fluidity as she posits a feminized animal grief marked by excess, while she concurrently masculinizes human sympathy by making it violent through mercy killings that complicate our accepted understandings of nineteenth-century sentiment. In contrast to other scholars of nineteenth-century animal studies who look at how humans understand and treat animals, my focus on the reciprocity of human-animal touch keeps animals at the center of my analysis. I argue that nineteenth-century sympathetic and sentimental texts, often dismissed as trite or as creating distance between the sympathizing subject and object of sympathy, demonstrate theoretical and political complexity through representations of shockingly intimate touch. In doing so, Victorian writers anticipated and even transcended recent theoretical conversations in the field of feminist animal studies. KEYWORDS: Human-animal Studies, Gender Studies, Nineteenth-century Literature and Culture, Affect, Touch, Pet Keeping Valerie L. Stevens (Name of Student) 08/12/2019 Date NINETEENTH-CENTURY PETS AND THE POLITICS OF TOUCH By Valerie L. Stevens Dr. Jill Rappoport Director of Dissertation Dr. Michael Trask Director of Graduate Studies 08/12/2019 Date ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank my wonderful committee, including Dr. Jill Rappoport, Dr. Ellen Rosenman, Dr. Katey Castellano, Dr. Marion Rust, and Dr. Phil Harling, for their support and guidance. As my committee chair, Dr. Rappoport especially read countless drafts, and her feedback combined rigor and kindness in a way that helped me grow as an academic. I will forever look up to Dr. Rappoport as an example of all the good things that a scholar and mentor can be. I also want to thank Dr. Michelle Sizemore for helping with my prospectus defense, mentoring me as a teacher, and being a model for generous engagement and thoughtfulness in the campus community. I was fortunate to come into the Ph.D. program at the University of Kentucky with Dr. Deirdre Mikolajcik, who inspired me with her work ethic, intelligence, drive, and resilience. My work is better because I had her to read drafts, run ideas by, commiserate with, and keep up with. Dr. Jessica Evans and Dr. Anna Bedsole were also examples of the enthusiasm and camaraderie that you can find in a Ph.D. program. My family was a constant support system through this project. My parents, Anna and Anthony Stevens, and my brother, Anthony Jr., were always my home. My granny, matriarch of my family extraordinaire, was there as a model of strong womanhood. My ability to get this education was possible because of the labors of her and my grandfather, D.G., decades ago. Moreover, the sense that my aunt, Charlotta Stevens, my grandparents, Betty and Clyde Hill, and others were cheering for me and proud of me also kept me going. iii To Amber Wiley, you are the great voice of reason in my life, reminding me that I was good enough, I was working hard enough, and that there is life and laughter outside the academy. Thank you for being a friend. Dr. Richard Bloomfield and Dr. Gregory Waters, I truly would not have been able to do this without you both. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge my pets. I adopted Pym (named after Barbara Pym) and Austen (of course, as in Jane Austen) the summer just before I started the Ph.D. program. They were my alternative family structure while I wrote about alternative family structures—my muses, my inspirations, my familiars, and my bosses. Along with this pair of companions I think of all the pets I have loved before, especially Snickers, who I lost just as this program started. Without them my life and work would be less meaningful. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ iii LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION. NINETEENTH-CENTURY PETS AND THE POLITICS OF TOUCH 1 CHAPTER 1. BITING COURTSHIP: ANIMAL JUDGMENT AND THE COURTSHIP NARRATIVE ................................................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER 2. HUMAN-ANIMAL “MOTHER-LOVE” IN NOVELS BY OLIVE SCHREINER .................................................................................................................... 52 CHAPTER 3. CRAWLING,

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