Book contents
- Biopolitics and Animal Species in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Science
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century literature and culture
- Biopolitics and Animal Species in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Science
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Note on Citations
- Introduction Method and Field
- Part I Species, Lyric, and Onomatopoeia
- Chapter 1 Species Lyric
- Chapter 2 “How Can You Talk with a Person If They Always Say the Same Thing?”
- Chapter 3 Onomatopoeia, Nonsense, and Naming
- Part II How Did Darwin Invent the Symptom?
- Part III Societies of Blood
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Chapter 2 - “How Can You Talk with a Person If They Always Say the Same Thing?”
Species Poetics, Onomatopoeia, and Birdsong
from Part I - Species, Lyric, and Onomatopoeia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2024
- Biopolitics and Animal Species in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Science
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century literature and culture
- Biopolitics and Animal Species in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Science
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Note on Citations
- Introduction Method and Field
- Part I Species, Lyric, and Onomatopoeia
- Chapter 1 Species Lyric
- Chapter 2 “How Can You Talk with a Person If They Always Say the Same Thing?”
- Chapter 3 Onomatopoeia, Nonsense, and Naming
- Part II How Did Darwin Invent the Symptom?
- Part III Societies of Blood
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Summary
This chapter discusses onomatopoeia as an ancient poetic device for representing bird and animal calls that in the 1830s was repurposed for science by inclusion in field guides as an aid to identifying bird species. The poetic tradition of representing animal utterances by onomatopoeia makes a contrast with another tradition in which animals are endowed with speech. The chapter considers the place of both traditions in British Romanticism and concludes by arguing that the incorporation of animal utterance into poetry is figured by Keats and others as transforming animals into food.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024