FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W2107479578> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W2107479578 endingPage "159" @default.
• W2107479578 startingPage "139" @default.
• W2107479578 abstract "The Tropical Empire:Exotic Animals and Beastly Men in The Island of Doctor Moreau Payal Taneja (bio) In the Island of doctoR Moreau (1896), H. G. Wells spares none of his characters. If there are no fully human characters in this post-Darwinian novel, then there are also no heroes in this story of imperial collapse working against the grain of those standard adventure tales that had gained popularity in nineteenth-century England. Typically, such colonialist stories featured upper-class or aristocratic heroes bringing progress and civilization to their perceived animal-like primitive Others in the outposts of a growing empire. Unlike the idealized heroes of British adventure fiction, the upper-middle-class characters of this narrative are coded as degenerates, failing to establish productive relations with any of the non-European natives or the lower-class members of British society in the tropics. In this analysis of Moreau, which is often studied as a science fiction1 work that stages a cross-species conflict between a vivisector and [End Page 139] his grotesque Beast-Folk, I argue that the portrayal of British sailors in this narrative deserves more critical attention for the twinned purpose of understanding their class-inflected animalization and involvement in the overseas trade of exotic animals. Gothic studies critics of Moreau have produced thought-provoking commentaries on the racial and gendered implications of degeneration encoded here. The arguments of Kelly Hurley in The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the Fin-de-siècle (1996) and Cyndy Hendershot in The Animal Within: Masculinity and the Gothic (1998) first drew my attention to the recurring topic of degeneration in the Gothic studies strand of Wells scholarship. Like Hurley, Hendershot has incisively examined the ways in which the first-person narrator, the scientist, and his assistant are all figured as decadent Englishmen, struggling to maintain their masculinity and imperial authority in a tropical outpost. Hurley and Hendershot offer useful insights on the treatment of race and gender in Moreau, but their readings do not tie the central human-animal problematic to the critique of animal trade that is conveyed in the novel. By focusing on the representation of British sailors who are associated with such trade, I build on the analyses of these scholars. In what follows, my goal is to link the animalization of British sailors to the role played by them in the reification of exotic animals in the tropics. Initially, exotic animals of this story are not just objects of scientific research or aspects of an anarchic feminized nature. First and foremost, they are presented as trade goods. I argue that the novel employs animal representation paradoxically, both to critique the capture and commodification of exotic animals and to sustain alienating views about animals and human animality, and this is most clearly revealed in the portrayal of the representatives of British commerce and imperialism. Imperial Menagerie The paucity of criticism on the narrative function of the sailors is surprising, given that the first quarter of the novel focuses exclusively on their encounters with the shipwrecked narrator Edward Prendick. The opening five chapters urge us not to read the central setting of the story—an unnamed tropical island in the South Pacific—as a self-contained space. Most critics misread the novel in exactly this way. For example, in her 2003 article “The Unholy Alliance of Science in The Island of Doctor Moreau,” [End Page 140] Roslynn Haynes claims that “it is clear from the outset that Moreau embodies several stock characteristics of the alchemist. Thus he lives in such rigorous seclusion that he even intends to deny the shipwrecked Prendick access to his island (itself a physical symbol of his isolation), and his work is conducted in the strictest secrecy in a locked laboratory” (56). Haynes continues, “Moreau, like Frankenstein, has cut himself off from the humanizing influences of society” (57). The main problem with this reading is that it conflates the island with the scientist inhabiting and governing that island. To claim that Moreau “cuts himself off from the humanizing influences of society” is to overlook the link that the novel subtly draws between his scientific project and imperial commerce. Moreau has severed..." @default.
• W2107479578 created "2016-06-24" @default.
• W2107479578 creator A5078905611 @default.
• W2107479578 date "2013-01-01" @default.
• W2107479578 modified "2023-10-17" @default.
• W2107479578 title "The Tropical Empire: Exotic Animals and Beastly Men in The Island of Doctor Moreau" @default.
• W2107479578 cites W1481511560 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W1517885839 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W1567348208 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W1982613743 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W2051268679 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W2088510975 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W2486852194 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W2506871343 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W2761043618 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W2797059791 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W366569283 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W574367237 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W578286405 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W580616539 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W581457180 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W596270426 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W619605159 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W628462114 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W629554808 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W646850094 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W80863522 @default.
• W2107479578 cites W2757704421 @default.
• W2107479578 doi "https://doi.org/10.1353/esc.2013.0034" @default.
• W2107479578 hasPublicationYear "2013" @default.
• W2107479578 type Work @default.
• W2107479578 sameAs 2107479578 @default.
• W2107479578 citedByCount "3" @default.
• W2107479578 countsByYear W21074795782016 @default.
• W2107479578 countsByYear W21074795782020 @default.
• W2107479578 countsByYear W21074795782023 @default.
• W2107479578 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W2107479578 hasAuthorship W2107479578A5078905611 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C107993555 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C122302079 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C124952713 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C142362112 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C144024400 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C166957645 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C195244886 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C199033989 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C2549261 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C2777421796 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C2778495208 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C42133412 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C52119013 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C53813258 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConcept C95457728 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C107993555 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C122302079 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C124952713 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C142362112 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C144024400 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C166957645 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C195244886 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C199033989 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C2549261 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C2777421796 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C2778495208 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C42133412 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C52119013 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C53813258 @default.
• W2107479578 hasConceptScore W2107479578C95457728 @default.
• W2107479578 hasIssue "2-3" @default.
• W2107479578 hasLocation W21074795781 @default.
• W2107479578 hasOpenAccess W2107479578 @default.
• W2107479578 hasPrimaryLocation W21074795781 @default.
• W2107479578 hasRelatedWork W1593707488 @default.
• W2107479578 hasRelatedWork W1968739772 @default.
• W2107479578 hasRelatedWork W1980195542 @default.
• W2107479578 hasRelatedWork W2035309515 @default.
• W2107479578 hasRelatedWork W21848247 @default.
• W2107479578 hasRelatedWork W2244656408 @default.
• W2107479578 hasRelatedWork W2334562205 @default.
• W2107479578 hasRelatedWork W2748952813 @default.
• W2107479578 hasRelatedWork W2933608806 @default.
• W2107479578 hasRelatedWork W4321259018 @default.
• W2107479578 hasVolume "39" @default.
• W2107479578 isParatext "false" @default.
• W2107479578 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W2107479578 magId "2107479578" @default.
• W2107479578 workType "article" @default.