Animal Studies

“You’ve Got to Know How to Speak Animalese”: Literary Explorations of Engagements with the Animal Other

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Jessica Murray
University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa. Email: murraj@unica.ac.za. ORCID: 0000-0001-8383-2459

[Received 25 May 2023, modified 26 July 2023, accepted 27 July 2023, first published 27 July 2023]

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.20
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Abstract

As the harmful impact of anthropogenic activity on the environment becomes increasingly glaring, it has become more urgent than ever to find more ethical and sustainable ways of engaging with the other animals with whom we share space. From extreme weather events to food supply disruptions and species extinctions, it is no longer possible to cling to the hubristic myth of an independent human who exercises dominion over nature. Our actions and choices have very real, immediate, and often unintended environmental consequences and our own species survival depends on accepting this inter-dependent reality in a spirit of respectful responsibility. While climate change is now widely considered to be an issue that demands serious attention, this article will argue that any attempt to foster greater environmental care will be compromised if we fail to listen to the voices of the animal other. I will explore the ways in which other animals try to speak and the challenges that inevitably arise when attempting to hear those voices by anchoring my argument in a literary analysis of selected contemporary novels. I will demonstrate that, even when authors represent characters who care deeply about the environment, animals tend to fall through the cracks of their activist commitments, and they repeatedly turn away from opportunities to listen respectfully to the voices of animals.

Keywords:  Animal, voice, listening, climate change, violence, environment, contemporary fiction

[Sustainable Development Goals: Climate Action, Life on Land]

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Interrogating the “Animal”: An Investigation into the Ethics of Man-Animal Divide

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Swagata Singha Ray  

Faculty Gurudas College, Kolkata, swagata.swagata@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.09

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Abstract

Humanity defines itself through an animal other, the animal in Jacques Derrida’s definition of “absolute alterity,” cannot return the human gaze. In this paper, I explore the possibilities of accommodation and hospitality which posthuman philosophy provides in conceptualizing the position of alterity of the “animal”. Building on the writing of Jacque Derrida and Giorgio Agamben I will argue how Posthumanism can radicalize the way in which the anthropocentric worldview looks at the animal as other, questioning the positioning and relevance of speciesism and species boundary. Also, the issue of the agency has been interrogated in this research article. I have also argued for a new mode of conceptualizing the “other” / the “animal” which abolishes the hierarchical view of anthropocentric conception of nonhuman but instead views the other from the lens of companionship, borrowing from the ideas of “companionship” and “Chuthulucene” of Donna J. Haraway. The paper is an attempt to expand the humanist exclusionary boundaries and is an exercise in developing a posthuman ethics through which the category of human can be radically questioned and can be made more hospitable.

 Keywords: Animal, Anthropocene, Chuthulucene, Ethics, Posthuman.

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Animality and Entanglement: The Gothicized “anthropological machine” in Bram Stoker’s short fiction

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Vincent Pacheco

De La Salle University, Manila. vincent.pacheco@dlsu.edu.ph, ORCID id: 0000-0002-1812-5528

  Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.08

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Abstract

This paper closely reads what constitutes the “non-human” vis-à-vis animality in Bram Stoker’s often overlooked short stories, namely The Squaw and The Burial of the Rats. The Squaw is a tale about an American who murders a kitten in cold blood, and in turn, the mother grotesquely avenges her kitten. The anxiety of interspecies relationship is evident in this text, and I argue that this anxiety allows what Giorgio Agamben calls the “anthropological machine” (a system which excludes animals from the zone of livable human life) to operate. The same can be said in The Burial of the Rats where the inability to articulate a boundary between animality and humanity becomes the same thing that pervasively haunts the characters in the story. Here, the vermin and the humans become “relationally entangled” as Donna Haraway puts it and I argue that the notion of entanglement here is precisely what makes the “anthropological machine” gothic in the stories. I also suggest that what makes the representations of animals horrific is the possibility that the caesura between man and animal is non-existent.

Keywords: Animal Studies, Giorgio Agamben, Bram Stoker, Entanglement, Donna Haraway

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Sociology and Animal Studies: Human Responses to Animal Loss in Times of Disaster

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Joseph Ching Velasco

De La Salle University, Manila. josephchingvelasco@gmail.com, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7098-8216

  Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.07

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Abstract

A number of attempts have been made to include animals in explorations in the humanities and social sciences. This is a response to the gap where animals are much-neglected entities in the said disciplines. There have been debates pertaining to the inclusion of animals in scholarly discourses in the field of sociology. Notably, human exceptionalism has been one of the key ideological drivers which prevent a more inclusive consideration of animals in the study of our social world. The anthropocentric view of the world and society has put the needs and status of humans above all other animals. This line of thinking has implications on how humanity relates and interacts with animals in a broader context. In times of crisis, humans relegate animals as conveniently expendable or an inconvenient afterthought, which easily leads to instances of animal abandonment and even abuse. However, there has been a collective shift in the way acts of animal abandonment are perceived on social media. This article examined the responses on social media pertaining to animal abandonment during the onslaught of typhoon Vamco in the Philippines in 2020. More specifically, two themes were analyzed: outrage against negligence and compassionate treatment of animals. While this article looks specifically at the abandonment of animals, the project invites further reflection on the notions of environmental ethics and the species boundary.

 Keywords: Animal Loss, Animal Abandonment, Animal Liberation, Typhoon Vamco, PAWS, Sociology of Animals

Of Crows and Humans: The Affective Economy of Mourning and Grieving

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Alexandra Margarita A. Orbeta

De La Salle University, Manila, alexandra_orbeta@dlsu.edu.ph, ORCID: 0000-0003-4056-898X

 Volume 13, Number 3, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n3.06

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Abstract

This paper aims to examine the representation of animals in Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers (2015), a multi-awarded novel about an academic’s struggles on coping with the grief of losing his wife. Previous scholarship on Grief is the Thing with Feathers focuses on an anthropocentric approach to grief and melancholia. However, I argue these emotions can be approached through an examination of the Crow, a fantastical talking bird who makes itself known during the funeral, against the human protagonists of the novel. My approach focuses on how the Crow manages to facilitate what Sara Ahmed calls an “affective economy” which aids the human characters to process their emotions. I critically analyze in this paper how the novel blurs the boundary that separates the human and beasts through its representation of animal emotion. I speculate on how the moments of encounter between the crow and humans emphasize the acts of touching and smelling as a mode to cope with melancholia and grief. Lastly, I look at how its hybridization of prose and poetry performatively imitates affective and emotional responses to personal loss.

Keywords: Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter, Affective Economy, Sara Ahmed, Animal Studies, Ignês Sodré

Humans, Animals and Habitats: Liminality and Environmental Concerns in George Saunders’ Fox 8

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Raisun Mathew1 & Dr. Digvijay Pandya2

1Doctoral Research Scholar, Department of English, Lovely Professional University, Punjab (India), E-mail: raisunmathew@gmail.com, orcid.org/0000-0003-3427-0941

2Associate Professor and Research Supervisor, Department of English, Lovely Professional University, Punjab (India), E-mail: digvijay.24354@lpu.co.in, orcid.org/0000-0002-5985-9579

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s10n4

Abstract

With the equal treatment of binary oppositions related to environmental concerns, the hypocrisy of human beings continues to dominate on earth having no counterpart to compete except the ones within the same race. Intruding into the unexplored habitats has helped the race to expand their jurisdictions, often with the exercise of power and unrivalled exhibition of uniqueness. This qualitative research paper aims to interpret the environmental concerns discussed in George Saunders’ Fox 8 in the light of the characteristics of coercive liminality exercised by the invasive domination of humans over the inhabitants. The intrusion of human beings transforms natural habitats to man-made environments, thus making it exclusively accessible only for their purposes. Human invasions lead to domination and it entails exploitation that results in the displacement of inhabitants and resources from their natural habitats. Introduction of the concepts such as coercive liminality from the textual interpretation and the argument of resultant counter-liminality develop the core of the paper. The research contributes to the perspective of liminality on studies related to environmental transitions and alterations due to human intervention.

Keywords: American Literature, domination, environment, exploitation, liminality.

Art and Science in Franz Marc’s Animal Iconography

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Eleni Gemtou

Professor, Dept. of Philosophy and History of Science, University of Athens, Panepistemioupolis 157 71, Athens, Greece. Email: egemtos@phs.uoa.gr

  Volume 8, Number 3, 2016 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v8n3.02

Received May 24, 2016; Revised July 10, 2016; Accepted July 15, 2016; Published August 18, 2016

Abstract

There has been a theory claiming that innovative artists have always created the appropriate atmosphere for forthcoming scientists to develop important hypotheses about the world. In this paper, the animal iconography of Franz Marc is discussed under the perspective of the achievements of modern ethology and its modified anthropomorphic approaches to animals that seem to have much in common with the empathetic attitudes of Marc, as shown both in his written texts and artworks. The basic argument presented is, however, that despite the interactions between art and science during history, it is of great importance to understand them as discrete rational fields with their own methods and expressive tools.

Keywords: Ethology, Franz Marc, Animal-Iconography, Art and Science

Acknowledgement: Franz Marc, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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