Animals, Machines, and AI: On Human and Non-Human Emotions in Modern German Cultural History

Description

Sentient animals, machines, and robots abound in German literature and culture, but there has been surprisingly limited scholarship on non-human life forms in German studies. This volume extends interdisciplinary research in emotion studies to examine non-humans and the affective relationships between humans and non-humans in modern German cultural history. In recent years, fascination with emotions, developments in robotics, and the burgeoning of animal studies in and beyond the academy have given rise to questions about the nature of humanity. Using sources from the life sciences, literature, visual art, poetry, philosophy, and photography, this collection interrogates not animal or machine emotions per se, but rather uses animals and machines as lenses through which to investigate human emotions and the affective entanglements between humans and non-humans. The COVID-19 pandemic made us more keenly aware of the importance of both animals and new technologies in our daily lives, and this volume ultimately sheds light on the centrality of non-humans in the human emotional world and the possibilities that relationships with non-humans offer for enriching that world. Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures Introduction: Feeling beyond the Human Emotions and Human/Non-Human Boundaries Mechanical Feelings Animals and Aesthetic Empathy in Germany around 1900 Control and Companion in the Work of Jakob von Uexküll and Konrad Lorenz Emotional Functions of Non-Humans Expressive Creatures Between the Animal and the Reader Robots, Machines, and Humanity Empathic Understanding between Humans and Non-Humans “Penetrating the Innermost Heart” I Know What the Caged Cat Feels Benevolent Bots Notes on Contributors Selected Bibliography Index