The Cat and the Human Imagination: Feline Images from Bast to Garfield

The Cat and the Human Imagination is a fascinating historical survey of the changing cultural attitudes towards cats and the myriad ways that they have been depicted in literature and art. This book examines the changing images -- fertility goddess, sly little predator, agent of Satan, avenging witness, aristocrat, friend, spirit of the home, bloodthirsty killer, seductive female -- and relates them to the contexts in which they arose. It also analyzes how human attitudes towards cats seem to have evolved in parallel with attitudes toward animals, toward authority, and toward gender.Katharine M. Rogers seeks out the cats who make appearances in an impressive range of literary and artistic works, providing the first critical look at the symbolic functioning of cat characters in Poe's The Black Cat, Dickens's Bleak House, and Zola's Therese Raquin, among other literary works. The historical and artistic range covered is impressive, creating a rich compendium that is the ideal book the cat lover seeking a refreshingly substantial and scholarly work about this fascinating animal.This book is a classic -- something every cat-loving intellectual will have to own. -- Emily Toth, Louisiana State University