Sterne’s Sentimental Animals: Rethinking the Human-Animal Divide in A Sentimental Journey

초록

Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768) is widely recognized for its critical engagement with the culture of sensibility. However, Sterne’s sentimental portrayal of animals has not received much critical attention. While critics tend to either dismiss the animals or treat them as symbols reflecting human concerns, a closer examination reveals a more nuanced depiction that challenges the dominant view of animals as inferior beings that are fundamentally different from humans. By examining the ways in which Sterne attributes human qualities to the dead ass, the caged starling, and Maria’s dog, I argue that he partakes in eighteenth-century debates about the status of nonhuman animals, which gained prominence as theologians, naturalists, and philosophers speculated on their spiritual, mental, and moral capacities during this period. Sterne not only portrays his animals as sentient beings that are more capable than humans of experiencing complex emotions and forming close emotional bonds with others, but also contemplates the idea of animals being able to express their feelings. By exploring how A Sentimental Journey disrupts the fixed boundaries between humans and animals, this article challenges anthropocentric readings of the novel and situates it within a broader history of evolving attitudes toward the natural world and its inhabitants. In doing so, I suggest that Sterne’s text can be read as an early contribution to Enlightenment discourse which prefigures contemporary concerns in animal studies and posthumanism, prompting us to reconsider the philosophical and ethical implications of human-animal relations in literature.

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