I spent the past month or so listening to a lecture on European history while walking my dogs. Coincidentally, the professor was very interested in the function of dogs within history. Many of his powerpoints included representations of dogs in paintings of the particular era being discussed. In his final lecture, he talked a bit about why dogs had caught his fancy: They function as screens onto which people can project their desires. He sees them positioned at the border between nature and culture.
As much as I love dogs, I had never considered them from an academic perspective. But if I were a grad student, I'd be interested in thinking about how dogs have been woven into our culture. What do our representations and treatments of dogs say about people from a historical and cultural perspective? If we compare Rin Tin Tin to Lassie to Air Bud to Underdog, what can we find? What can be understood from the 10 most popular dogs of 2007? Does the fact that the boxer has muscled his way into list again say anything about our attitudes?
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