{"product_id":"in-the-skin-of-a-peggy-mccracken-9780226458922","title":"In the Skin of a Beast: Sovereignty and Animality in Medieval France","description":"In medieval literature, when humans and animals meet--whether as friends or foes--issues of mastery and submission are often at stake. \u003ci\u003eIn the Skin of a Beast \u003c\/i\u003eshows how the concept of sovereignty comes to the fore in such narratives, reflecting larger concerns about relations of authority and dominion at play in both human-animal and human-human interactions. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Peggy McCracken discusses a range of literary texts and images from medieval France, including romances in which animal skins appear in symbolic displays of power, fictional explorations of the wolf's desire for human domestication, and tales of women and snakes converging in a representation of territorial claims and noble status. These works reveal that the qualities traditionally used to define sovereignty--lineage and gender among them--are in fact mobile and contingent. In medieval literary texts, as McCracken demonstrates, human dominion over animals is a disputed model for sovereign relations among people: it justifies exploitation even as it mandates protection and care, and it depends on reiterations of human-animal difference that paradoxically expose the tenuous nature of human exceptionalism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Peggy McCracken\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 022645892X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780226458922\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/17\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.20lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.20h x 6.30w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/01\/2017","brand":"Peggy McCracken","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48086411870463,"sku":"9780226458922","price":48.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_b2603b60-0c0a-49eb-a084-3aabfb27b460.jpg?v=1769094522","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/in-the-skin-of-a-peggy-mccracken-9780226458922","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}