The Cultural Lives of Greyhounds

This book aims to enhance our intellectual understanding of the relationship between human beings and domestic animals, with a focus on a specific breed of dog: the greyhound. It combines literary criticism, cultural history and the rapidly expanding field of animal studies by tracing the creative representation of the greyhound, from the earliest references in classical myth to multiple appearances in contemporary literature, performance and the fine arts. Each representationwhether of hunter or racer, of pet or predatoris treated not simply as a stage in some inevitable humanitarian progression but as part of a series of co-evolutionary exchanges between humans and their canine collaborators that together constitute a shared history.