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The Curious Affair of Monsieur Martin the Bear
Author(s) -
LEE PAULA YOUNG
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-0208.2010.00326.x
Subject(s) - instinct , cannibalism , resentment , captivity , civilization , colonialism , history , narrative , environmental ethics , art , art history , ethnology , philosophy , archaeology , law , literature , political science , ecology , biology , predation , politics
In 1820 a brown bear killed and ate a man who had jumped into his pit in the Ménagerie in Paris. Accused of cannibalism, ‘Martin Brown’ was cast as a degenerate man who failed to appreciate his captivity, revealing that Martin's true utility was not to further zoological enquiry but to perform racist colonial narratives. As a ‘cunning’ brown bear who killed his benefactors, he stood in for mulatto slaves on Saint‐Domingue, a site of French resentment after the freed colony became Haiti. In Paris the bear confirmed the ameliorative effects of civilisation, while providing a cautionary tale regarding docile bodies masking savage instincts.