FYS482

People have always written about their pets. Taking the most common species of nonhuman companions as its focus, this seminar moves through five centuries of English literature, meeting cats and dogs along the way: Sir Gawain's precious hounds in Malory's Morte d'Arthur, the old feline who captures Keats' imagination (if not his heart), the dog called Crab who graces Shakespeare's stage, the mysterious Cheshire Cat planted in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and many others. With their strong genetic ties to tigers and wolves, cats and dogs inevitably remind of us what is untamed in our own behavior.