This thesis explores the dynamics of anthropocentrism in early modern English literature: how it could provoke both a callous disregard for and profound consideration of nonhumanity. Synthesising animal studies, ecocriticism, and cultural theory, it interrogates the “life and death relations” of early modern England and reveals how four writers navigated “the implications of our real similarities with and differences from other creatures” (Feder, 2014). Using important animal studies scholarship alongside writing on cosmopolitics, I craft a theoretical framework that traces the varied dynamics of early modern attentiveness to the natural world.                                                                                                                                                         

The chapters explore the writings of George Gascoigne, William Shakespeare, Michael Drayton, and James Howell. In turn, they investigate the relationship of rights and justice to nonhuman subjectivities, earthly community and kinship, Man's capacity to impact the natural world, and the stakes of human exceptionalism. The thesis argues that my chosen authors were alert to the living world’s potential to wreak havoc and its indifference to humanity. At the same time, however, it highlights a genuine, thoughtful investment in nonhuman experiences and the wellbeing of the living world.