How to Make a Human: Animals and Violence in the Middle Ages

Karl Steel, How to Make a Human: Animals and Violence in the Middle Ages, Interventions: New Studies in Medieval Literature (Columbus, Oh.: Ohio State University Press, 2011). xi + 292 pp. ISBN 978-0-8142-1157-1. $49.95.

In this extremely stimulating study, Karl Steel explores some of the most important and fundamental aspects of human identity. Taking up the challenges of a 'post-humanist' critique, he considers the human and animal at an interface of power and violence, more specifically human violence exerted over animals. The discussion is nourished by a lively and enriching engagement with critical theory, drawing upon the work of diverse thinkers such as Derrida (in particular the posthumous LAnimal que donc je suis), Agamben, Lacan, and Zizek, rigorously in the service of a series of sensitive and rewarding close readings. The first chapter, entided 'How to make a human', begins by asserting that it is the human exertion and control of violence over animals that establishes the human/animal dichotomy. Man's reason allows him...