Elephants in the Western Imagination: A Modern History

FAIN: FA-50250-04

Nigel T. Rothfels
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (Milwaukee, WI 53211-3153)

This project examines the history of western ideas about elephants since the eighteenth century. When people stand in front of an elephant exhibit at a zoo today, when they watch a nature film or read a popular book about elephant life in Africa or Asia, when they see performing elephants at a circus, when they watch Dumbo or read about Babar, when they feel guilty about ivory-handled heirloom cultery sets, they are participating in the changing ways we have come to think about elephants. For ecological, philosophical, historical, and even economic reasons, elephants "matter" like few other animals do. How elephants have been thought about, and why they have been imagined the way they have, are the central historical questions of this study of a broad range of archival and published materials from the last 250 years about elephants. The project will result in a book manuscript.

Media Coverage

(Review)
Author(s): Kelly Enright
Publication: Markings: h-animal conference review
Date: 5/21/2007
URL: http://www.h-net.org/~animal/markings4_enright.html

Review (Review)
Author(s): Allison Ksiazkiewicz
Publication: Markings: H-animal reviews
Date: 3/19/2007
URL: http://www.h-net.org/~animal/markings2_ksiazkiewicz.html

(Review)
Author(s): Traci Warkentin, Lauren Corman
Publication: Markings review for h-animal
Date: 3/19/2007
URL: http://www.h-net.org/~animal/markings1_warkentin-corman-watson.html

Associated Products

The Elephant Remains (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Elephant Remains
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: Keynote Address: About ten years ago, I began a long project about elephants which has focused on a basic historical question: why do we think about elephants in the ways we have and do? It seemed obvious enough at the start that a great deal of what most people in the West think about elephants has very little to do with the animals’ actual lives and experiences in either their native range countries or in all the other places they have lived in traveled over the last couple of hundred years. Simple questions about where such ideas as elephants never forget or elephants never strike out without cause seemed to beg for some kind of historical study, especially since it was clear that ideas about elephants (like so many other animals) had obviously changed so much in recent centuries. This presentation is a bookend to a paper I gave at the 2002 ISAZ meeting in London, and focuses on the parts of elephants preserved in private and public collections, and what these collections can tell us about the ways we have come to think about these animals. If the elephants of hunting accounts, zoos, circuses, and Hollywood have been asked (and some would say forced) to perform, if their apparent resistance could even become an important part of the spectacles, in this paper I will look at what is left of elephants after they have died, after they have become almost only a part of human history
Date: 08/06/2011
Primary URL: http://www.isaz.net/conferences/ISAZ%20Program%20Book.pdf
Conference Name: 20th Annual Confernece of the e International Society for Anthrozoology

"Elephants without History" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "Elephants without History"
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: Keynote Address
Date: 07/11/2011
Primary URL: http://www.aasg2011.com.au/
Conference Name: 4th Biennial Australian Animal Studies Group Conference 2011

"Preserving Animals in Time" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "Preserving Animals in Time"
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: Keynote Address: As concern for animal extinction gained momentum at the beginning of the twentieth century, many people, including figures like Carl Akeley, William Temple Hornaday, and C. G. Schillings, argued that perhaps the only way to preserve animals for the future was to collect them immediately in photographs and museums. Their ultimately impossible hope was to somehow stop time and perhaps even total extinction by preserving parts and images of living animals. This paper examines the idea of stopping time and extinction through the use of photographic records and taxidermy.
Date: 5/27/2011
Primary URL: http://www.genna.gender.uu.se/conferences-events/conferences-workshops/animal-movements-moving-animals/keynote-speakers/
Conference Name: Animal Movements / Moving Animals -- GenNa, Uppsala University

"Trophies and Remorse: Shooting with Mixed Feelings in the Nineteenth Century (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: "Trophies and Remorse: Shooting with Mixed Feelings in the Nineteenth Century
Abstract: Invited Lecture
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Date: 03/18/2010
Location: Michigan State University, Lansing

Delia and the Elephant: Hunting and Taxidermy (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Delia and the Elephant: Hunting and Taxidermy
Abstract: Invited Lecture
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Date: 2/24/2010
Location: Kaplan Humanities Center, Northwestern University

The Rules of the Game (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Rules of the Game
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: No abstract available
Date: 11/06/2009
Primary URL: http://www.litsciarts.org/slsa09/program.php

Taxidermy and Taxonomy (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Taxidermy and Taxonomy
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: In recent years there has been a growing interest among scholars of Animal Studies in the place of taxidermized animals - and animal trophies more generally - in western cultures.Part of this interest stems from the efforts of numerous contemporary artists (and the scholarship about them, including obviously Steve Baker's work, but also ongoing examinations like those highlighted in Issues 6 and 7 of _Antennae_) to re-imagine the possibilities of using taxidermy to challenge viewers to consider their ideas about animals and human culture.Pieces like the reworked hunting trophies of Angela Singer or Maurizio Cattelan's suspended horse, _Novecento_, are making animals visible in what are typically called "challenging" or "disturbing" ways.In one sense, these artists are battling the same problem taxidermists have faced for a very long time - how do we make the stuffed animals natural history collections, living rooms, and bars in any way compelling, something more than just a hollow hide.In this paper, I will explore the multiple roles that mounted specimens could play in the context of colonial hunting.By examining the histories of a variety of mounts (not just classics like antelopes, lions, and elephants, but also butterflies and even fish), the paper will build a historical context for our contemporary critiques of taxidermy.
Date: 5/1/2009
Primary URL: http://www.visualizinganimals.psu.edu/conference.html
Conference Name: "Finding Animals: Toward a Comparative History and Theory of Animals" Pennsylvania State University

The Monotonous Recurrence': Scenes of Hunting and Collecting in Mid-Nineteenth Century Ceylon (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Monotonous Recurrence': Scenes of Hunting and Collecting in Mid-Nineteenth Century Ceylon
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: No abstract available
Date: 11/13/2008
Primary URL: http://www.litsciarts.org/slsa08/
Conference Name: 2008 Annual Conference of the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts, Charlotte, NC

The Mirror in the Eye: Making Sense of Elephants (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Mirror in the Eye: Making Sense of Elephants
Abstract: No abstract available.
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Date: 12/07/2007
Location: University of Oslo

Following the Spoor / Writing History (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Following the Spoor / Writing History
Abstract: No abstract available
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Date: 05/26/2007
Location: London, England
Primary URL: http://www.animalsandsociety.org/assets/library/731_s10.pdf

Rogue: Understanding Violent Elephants in the Nineteenth Century (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Rogue: Understanding Violent Elephants in the Nineteenth Century
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: No abstract available
Date: 05/04/2007
Conference Name: The Victorian Animal: CUNY Graduate Center

The Elephant in the Room: Animals and History (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Elephant in the Room: Animals and History
Abstract: No abstract available
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Date: 3/16/2007
Location: University of Toronto

Looking at Elephants (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Looking at Elephants
Abstract: No abstract available
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Date: 02/02/2007
Location: York University Toronto

Touching. (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Touching.
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: No abstract available
Date: 4/23/2005
Conference Name: Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies Conference -- Baton Rouge, LA

This Is a Trunk and This Is a Tale: Elephants, Science, and the Humanities (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: This Is a Trunk and This Is a Tale: Elephants, Science, and the Humanities
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: No abstract available
Date: 10/15/2004
Conference Name: Society for Literature and Science Annual Conference -- Duke University

The Eyes of Elephants: Changing Perceptions (Article)
Title: The Eyes of Elephants: Changing Perceptions
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: No abstract available
Year: 2008
Primary URL: http://novus.mamutweb.com/Shop/List/Tidsskrift-for-kulturforskning/26/1
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Tidsskrift for kulturforskning
Publisher: Novus forlag

Elephants, Ethics, and History (Book Section)
Title: Elephants, Ethics, and History
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Editor: Catherine A. Christen
Editor: Chris Wemmer
Abstract: No abstract available.
Year: 2008
Primary URL: http://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/ecom/MasterServlet/GetItemDetailsHandler?iN=9780801888182&qty=1&source=2&viewMode=3&loggedIN=false&JavaScript=y
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins UP
Book Title: Elephants and Ethics: Toward a Morality of Coexistence
ISBN: 9780801888182

Killing Elephants: Pathos and Prestige in the Nineteenth Century (Book Section)
Title: Killing Elephants: Pathos and Prestige in the Nineteenth Century
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Editor: Martin Danahay
Editor: Deborah Denenholz Morse
Abstract: No abstract available.
Year: 2007
Primary URL: http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=7619&edition_id=9070&lang=cy-GB
Publisher: Ashgate
Book Title: Victorian Animal Dreams: Representations of Animals in Victorian Literature and Culture
ISBN: 978-0-7546-551

Touching Animals: The Search for a 'Deeper Understanding' of Animals (Book Section)
Title: Touching Animals: The Search for a 'Deeper Understanding' of Animals
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Editor: Dorothee Brantz
Abstract: No abstract available.
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://books.upress.virginia.edu/detail%2Fbooks%2Fgroup-4188.xml?q=brantz
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Book Title: Beastly Natures: Animals, Humans, and the Study of History
ISBN: 9780813929477

Tiere berühren: Vierbeinige Darsteller und ihr Publikum (Book Section)
Title: Tiere berühren: Vierbeinige Darsteller und ihr Publikum
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Editor: Christof Mauch
Editor: Dorothee Brantz
Abstract: No abstract available.
Year: 2009
Primary URL: http://www.schoeningh.de/katalog/titel/978-3-506-76382-2.html
Publisher: Schöningh Verlag
Book Title: Tierische Geschichte: Die Beziehung von Mensch und Tier in der Kultur der Moderne
ISBN: 978-3-506-7638

Reflections on the Vitrine (Article)
Title: Reflections on the Vitrine
Author: Nigel Rothfels
Abstract: Interview with Ingvild Kaldal.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.artandresearch.org.uk/
Secondary URL: http://www.artandresearch.org.uk/v4n1/v4n1editorial.php
Secondary URL Description: Volume 4.1
Access Model: Open Access, online
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Art and Research: A Journal of Ideas, Contexts and Methods

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