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Rat and the Binaries of Modernity [Krysa protiv binarnoi logiki sovremennosti]
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Rat and the Binaries of Modernity [Krysa protiv binarnoi logiki sovremennosti]
Annotation
PII
S086954150013595-4-
DOI
10.31857/S086954150013595-4
Publication type
Article
Status
Published
Authors
Gabriela Jarzebowska 
Affiliation: University of Warsaw
Address: Poland, Warsaw
Edition
№1
Pages
55-63
Abstract

The article traces the processes of how the contemporary rat status was formed within dualisms constructed by the project of modernity. Even though the animal can be viewed as a nearly perfect manifestation of this project, I argue that, paradoxically enough, it may simultaneously be a manifestation of the project’s failure, if not its greatest nonhuman victim, considering the rate at which the extermination of rats has been proceeding. My aim is to show that, although these animals had been considered as “pests” for centuries, their contemporary symbolic status stems from a number of naturecultural conditions, such as the formation of capitalist economy, urbanization processes, sanitary discourse and creation of a dualism between the wild and the laboratory rats. Recognizing the processes which formed a status of a rat as a taboo in the Western culture seems to be important for redefining modernist paradigms.

Keywords
rats, modernization, wastewater, sanitary discourse, animal studies, dirt, dualism, pests, animals
Received
17.02.2021
Date of publication
25.02.2021
Number of purchasers
23
Views
447
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0.0 (0 votes)
Previous versions
S086954150013595-4-1 Дата внесения правок в статью - 28.01.2021
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References

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