The human animal

General guidelines: Weve been taking a close look at themes related our topic of the human animal all quarter. Now its time to take a step back and make some connections between the readings. In the spirit of a course on comparative literature, your paper should engage with at least two different works (by two different authors).
Topic: The Human Animal. How do you define the human animal? Throughout the quarter, we have allowed this concept to guide our discussions because it is flexible enough to connect to a number of questions relating to the categories of the human and the animal. Heres your chance to put some of these ideas together. Based on our readings, what do you find the most interesting aspect of the human animal in the context of early modern literature? Is it the question of animal rationality? Is it the potential for a social criticism of humanity? Or something else? Choose one perspective and explain why it is important, with reference to at least two of the readings.