Fallen Animals: Art, Religion, Literature(Ecocritical Theory and Practice)

The premise of Fallen Animals is that some how and in some way The Fall of Adam and Eve as related in the Bible has affected all living beings from the largest to the smallest, from the oldest to the youngest, regardless of gender and geography. The movement from the blissful arena of the Garden of Eden to the uncertain reality of exile altered in an overt or nuanced fashion the attitudes, perceptions, and consciousness of animals and humanity alike. Interpretations of these reformulations as well as the original story of the Paradise Garden have been told and retold for millennia in a variety of cultural contexts, languages, societies, and religious environments. Throughout all those retellings, animals have been a constant presence positively and negatively, actively and passively, from the creation of birds, fish, and mammals to the agency of the serpent in the Fall narrative. The serpent in the Garden of Eden is but one example of the ambivalence which has characterized the human-animal relationship over the centuries, both across, and within, cultures, societies and traditions. The book examines the interpretations, functions and interactions of the Fall — physical, moral, artistic and otherwise — as represented through animals, or through human-animal interactions.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - All Creatures High and Low: Seeing Fallen Animals in Religion and the Arts Diane Apostolos-Cappadona and Zohar Hadromi-Allouche Opening Note - The Snake in the Garden of Eden Robert A. Segal “To see what he would name them…”: Naming and Domination in a Fallen World Brian Brock From Ursus Diabolus to Ursus Ex Machina: The Ambivalent Legacy of Biblical Bears in Christian Art and Hagiography Eric Ziolkowski Jonah and His Fish: The Monstrification of God’s Servant in Early Jewish and Christian Reception History Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer “Who Has the Most Faults?”: Animal Sinners in a Late Byzantine Poem Kirsty Stewart “The Author Laughed in a Cat’s Voice”: Aesop and Humanism in William Baldwin’s Beware the Cat Rachel Stenner Do Monkeys Know about Their Origin?: Narratives of Animals Emerging During Fall in an Islamic Context Constantin Canavas Epilogue - We Fall into the Humanimal: A conversation between Kate Walters and Penny Florence Kate Walters and Penny Florence

About the Author :
Zohar Hadromi-Allouche is lecturer in religious studies and Islam at the University of Aberdeen.

Review :
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