Postmodern Animal (Reaktion Books - Essays in Art and Culture)

"In The Postmodern Animal, Steve Baker explores how animal imagery has been used in recent and contemporary art and performance, and in postmodern philosophy and literature, to shape ideas about identity and creativity. Baker analyzes the work of such British and American artists as Olly and Suzi, Mark Dion, Damien Hirst and Sue Coe, at the same time looking critically at the constructions, performances and installations of Robert Rauschenberg, Louise Bourgeois, Joseph Beuys and other major artists of the twentieth century. Baker's book draws parallels between the animal's place in postmodern art and in poststructuralist theory, drawing on works as diverse as Jacques Derrida's recent analysis of the role of animals in philosophical thought and Julian Barnes's best-selling Flaubert's Parrot."--BOOK JACKET.