The Annotated Ape in Thomas Love Peacock’s Melincourt, or, Sir Oran Haut-Ton

This essay argues that in Peacock’s novel Melincourt the copious pseudo-scholarly footnotes are integral to the characterization of the simian character of Sir Oran. In mutually reflective ways the ape and the annotations about him offer up a hierarchical ordering of relations—taxonomic and textual—...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in romanticism 2024-03, Vol.63 (1), p.25-51
Main Author: Chalmers, Alan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anthropomorphism
Literary characters
Novels
Peacock, Thomas Love (1785-1866)
Social criticism & satire
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This essay argues that in Peacock’s novel Melincourt the copious pseudo-scholarly footnotes are integral to the characterization of the simian character of Sir Oran. In mutually reflective ways the ape and the annotations about him offer up a hierarchical ordering of relations—taxonomic and textual—only to call such ordering into question. By transgressing such species and textual boundaries the novel undermines satirically the evolving taxonomic and scholarly assumptions of its time, and the presumptive authority they inscribe.
ISSN:0039-3762
2330-118X
2330-118X
DOI:10.1353/srm.2024.a924678