Gli “animali immaginari” di Boria Sax. Dal bestiario antico e medievale agli Animal Studies

In Antiquity, and during the Middle Ages, each creature had a place and function in creation; on the basis of ancient cosmogonies and Genesis, creatures on earth were considered to be interconnected and, according to this principle, animals were assigned human qualities. During the medieval period, this human-animal relationship was consolidated. The bestiary participates in the representation of the world and its creatures, just as it makes the monstrum visible and ‘real’. Literally, the monster refers to a prodigy that becomes a manifestation of divine will, and often refers to deplorable moral qualities. With the modern zoology of the 18th and 19th centuries, an empirical view of animals replaced the anthropomorphic view. Since the last decades of the 20th century, this process has been investigated by Animal Studies, divided into two interpretations: anthrozoology and zooanthropology. This article discusses Boria Sax’s theories as expressed in the book Imaginary Animals. The author, more oriented towards anthrozoology, extends animal studies to myth and legend, and tries to show how civilisation and nature merge in the domain of imagination. The methodological approach is comparative and allows Sax to explore the mythologies of ‘global’ cultures, in all historical eras. In an attempt to trace the history of imaginary animals from Palaeolithic art to contemporary narratives from a global perspective, Sax argues that the distinction between real and imaginary creatures is a subtle one, and suggests that ‘monsters’ can help us give tangible form to our secret fears, conversely, ‘wonders’ embody our hopes. Observations that bring humans of the past, ancient, medieval or modern, closer to humans of the present because imaginary creatures direct humans beyond the limits of social conventions, religious dogma and acquired knowledge.