Cormorant and Pelican

Two: I assess the parallel history of the saintlike pelican – Christ to the cormorant’s Satan – describing the close interweaving of the symbolic histories of these two birds over time. In the process, I address the tradition of the ‘vulning’ pelican, focusing on the destructive pairing of cormorant and pelican in Richard II and then turning to The Merchant of Venice , in which the mutual loathing of Shylock and Antonio is expressed through their respective implied identities as cormorant and pelican, and I discuss the historic antisemitic association of cormorants. I then reflect on the crucified cormorant in modern writing and culture, briefly discussing also the redemption of the cormorant in contemporary British young adult fiction. I conclude with an account of a recent poem by African-American poet Tiana Clark in which, reversing centuries of racist association with the bird, she finds her own post-Christian identity in the cormorant.