Call for Papers for the interdisciplinary volume
'Weder Fisch noch Fleisch': Animal Preservation before 1850 in Theory and Practice
Abstracts (350 words): May 31, 2024
The volume ‘Weder Fisch noch Fleisch’ explores the theory and practice of animal preparation prior to 1850. The book project focuses thus on animal preparations made before the modernization of taxidermy around the middle of the 19th century. While taxidermied objects themselves are irritating in their semantic ambivalence of being both the animal itself and its representation, early modern animal preparation often underwent a further distortion: It was susceptible to deformation due to inadequate conservation methods and created less evidence of the animals' appearance rather than developing its own momentum as an aesthetic object. Neglection of historical specimens in modern collections contributed to the continuation of this momentum right up to the present day. Damage, deformation and discolouration can often be observed on the - relatively few - preserved pre-modern specimens. However, both unintentional and deliberate deformations of the specimens contributed to the idea of the 'nature' of the respective animals since specimens formed the basis of early modern natural history collections in the 16th century.
In line with these observations, the volume aims to interpret historical specimens not only as objects of the history of both science and collecting, but also in terms of their distinct aesthetics and as sources of insights into (historical) human-animal relationships. In this way, the topic responds to current impulses from various research discourses, promoting interdisciplinary research. While these objects have recently been increasingly addressed from the perspective of collection history, questions about the taxidermied animal as an aesthetic object and trace of the living animal, further bridges the topic to questions of Visual Studies and Human-Animal Studies. From a Human-Animal Studies perspective, deceased yet materially preserved animals still receive less attention than living ones, despite their comparable impact on the relationship between humans and non-human animals. Also, questions about the 'biographies' of individual specimens are often a desideratum. Moreover, the exact practices of animal preparation before 1850 have only been marginally examined. The contributions of this volume aim to fill these gaps.
Topics for contributions could encompass, for example, preparation methods, preserved specimens, and their contribution to knowledge production. How do early preparations straddle naturalist interest and artistic craftsmanship? How do these procedures differ from subsequent centuries, and what insights do these objects offer into historical and contemporary human-animal relationships?
A workshop held at the University of Trier (https://arthist.net/archive/36990) in the summer of 2022 ignited the dialogue among perspectives from the humanities and natural history museum practice. The volume positions itself as a continuation of this exchange and a deepening of the interdisciplinary examination of early animal preparation. We welcome contributions not only from scholars in cultural studies, art history and the history of science and knowledge, but also from practitioners of the trade and museum professionals, as well as individuals from other disciplines and perspectives.
Prospective contributors are invited to submit an abstract (max. 350 words) and a brief biography via email to the editors, Dorothee Fischer (fischerd@uni-trier.de) and Robert Bauernfeind (robert.bauernfeind@philhist.uni-augsburg.de). Abstracts and contributions may be presented in either English or German.
The deadline for submitting the abstract is May 31, 2024. Feedback on our decision will be provided by the end of June 2024. The submission date of the complete contribution (with up to 40,000 characters and 3-4 illustrations) is November 15, 2024.
The publication is planned for 2025.