Melancholia's dog

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Title:

Melancholia's dog

Author:

Kuzniar, Alice A.

ISBN:

9780226465784

Personal Author:

Kuzniar, Alice A.

Publication Information:

Chicago, Ill. ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Physical Description:

x, 215 p. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

Muteness -- Shame -- Intimacy -- Mourning.

Abstract:

"An attempt to understand human attachment to the canis familiaris in terms of reciprocity and empathy, Melancholia's Dog tackles such difficult subjects as our intimacy and kinship with dogs, our identification with their suffering, and the reasons for our profound mourning over their deaths. In addition to philosophy and psychology, Alice A. Kuzniar turns to the insights and images offered by the literary and visual arts - the short stories of Ivan Turgenev and Franz Kafka, the novels of J. M. Coetzee and Rebecca Brown, the photography of Sally Mann and William Wegman, the artwork of David Hockney and Sue Coe, and much more."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject Term:

Dogs in art.

Dogs in literature.

Human-animal relationships.

Electronic Access:

Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip064/2005034633.html
Contributor biographical information http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0666/2005034633-b.html
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0666/2005034633-d.html

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025484540	700.4629772 K97M 2006	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Bred to provide human companionship, dogs eclipse all other species when it comes to reading the body language of people. Dog owners hunger for a complete rapport with their pets; in the dog the fantasy of empathetic resonance finds its ideal. But cross-species communication is never easy. Dog love can be a precious but melancholy thing.
An attempt to understand human attachment to the canis familiaris in terms of reciprocity and empathy, Melancholia's Dog tackles such difficult concepts as intimacy and kinship with dogs, the shame associated with identification with their suffering, and the reasons for the profound mourning over their deaths. In addition to philosophy and psychoanalysis, Alice A. Kuzniar turns to the insights and images offered by the literary and visual arts--the short stories of Ivan Turgenev and Franz Kafka, the novels of J. M. Coetzee and Rebecca Brown, the photography of Sally Mann and William Wegman, and the artwork of David Hockney and Sue Coe. Without falling into sentimentality or anthropomorphization, Kuzniar honors and learns from our canine companions, above all attending to the silences and sadness brought on by the effort to represent the dog as perfectly and faithfully as it is said to love.