Why read about animals: On the formation of the animal autobiography as a literary genre in the 18th–19th century British literature

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the genesis of the genre of animal autobiography in English literature at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries. The emergence, formation and evolution of the genre is considered in three contexts. The ideas of Adam Smith and David Hume together with the pedagogical teachings of John Locke and Sarah Trimmer form the central philosophical concepts of the new genre: sentimental feeling, sympathy, concern for the well-being of another living being. Comparison of the animal autobiography with “novel of circulation”, a popular in the XVIII century type of novel about adventures of a thing, focuses readers attention on animate and inanimate narrator which leads to the didactics of a new genre. Autobiographical narratives such as “The Life and Perambulations of a Mouse” of Dorothy Kilner, “Adventures of a Donkey” of Arabella Argus, and “Black Beauty” of Anna Sewell are studied in the context of the 18th and 19th century novel culture and since the authors of such autobiographies were predominantly women, who were responsible for caregiving and education, within the female narrative strategies in biographies. Written over two centuries ago by women who appropriated the voices of animals and spoke of their well-being, animal autobiographies are studied in terms of ecofeminist critique and human-animal studies. It is concluded that this genre may be regarded as an enlightenment project, which had and still has not only a didactic, but also an emancipatory function.