Shady Beasts: Animal Transgression and Identity in
Byron, Woody Allen, and Eminem
In all their disparate iterations, recent works on creature concerns
tend to consider human/animal relationships, the slippery boundaries
between creatures, and the spaces which we inhabit together with the
common purpose of interring disease and fixing a stable place to
understand ourselves and those creatures with whom we live. Discourse
on taboo tends toward considering these same problems. Though there
are a variety of complementary understandings of criticism surrounding
taboo and transgression, they can be read together as a critique of
identity, both as markers of present identity and, paradoxically, its
absence. Stefan Horlacher, considering the variety of literary critical
perspectives on taboo, connects taboo to its social context:
The interdependent, overlapping discourses surrounding
taboo—such as transgression and repression, innovation
and conservatism, punishment and pleasure, or sadism
and masochism, to name but a few—can be understood
as an arena of contestation in which a society negotiates
not only its values and beliefs . . . but also its borders
and power structures. (13)
For Byron, Eminem, and Woody Allen, engaging taboo—violating social
expectations—occurs at the point of animal contact during moments
when civilization itself is in contest.
These men are exemplary figures in their cultural moments,
representing an avant-garde that is both set apart from and circumscribes
a social ideal: each is a celebrity paragon who is a member of a
respective social milieu and yet distinct from it as a leading figure (they
are simply peerless). Byron is the first real celebrity in the modem sense;
Eminem is a mainstream rap artist, winning more Grammy awards than
any other rapper (with 13); writer/director/comedian Woody Allen holds
the record for the most Academy Award nominations for best original
screenplay (with 15), among other awards. All three have earned
reputations as anti-establishment celebrities.' Each is in an ideal position
to engage taboo, which similarly functions within a particular social
context, and specifically by violating central social expectations. Taboo
in this context attacks the borders of what we consider the human and the