Course aim: In this course, we will examine contemporary representations of human and animal life. Reading novels and theoretical texts from across the world, we will consider the ways in which the human-animal relation informs ideas of human identity and explore the different literary techniques employed to represent animal life. We will ask questions such as: what does it mean to be human? What is the difference between animals and humans? And how can we understand and represent animal experience? The course will be divided into five key topics: Animal Companions, Representing Animals, Rethinking Life, Anthropomorphism and the Limits of the Human, and Are We Post-Human? Each topic will be addressed through novels and theoretical texts drawn from a range of cultural, theoretical and geographical backgrounds. The novels will include texts by authors such as Jose Saramago, Yann Martel, Han Kang, Margaret Atwood, and Jim Crace.
Course summary: This course will involve an examination of human and animal life as it is represented in twenty-first century transnational fiction and thought. It will consider the ways in which the human-animal relation informs ideas of human identity, and will explore the different literary techniques employed to represent animal life. It will address questions such as: what does it mean to be human? What is the difference between animals and humans? Etc.. The course will be divided in five topics: representing animals; animal companions; anthropomorphism and the limits of the human; life, matter and agency; and are we post-human? Each topic will comprise a novel and a short theoretical text drawn from a range of cultural, theoretical and geographical backgrounds. Students will identify the literary and theoretical questions arising from these texts and critically and comparatively evaluate the different approaches to the human-animal relation.
Please write an essay of 2000-2500 words in response to one of the following questions. In your essay you should use at least one of the literary texts and at least one of the theoretical texts studied in class. You should, of course, supplement this with your own secondary research.
What would it mean for humans and other animals to be ‘companion species’?
Does anthropomorphism help us to better understand nonhuman animals?
Consider the literary, ethical, and philosophical implications of the use of animal characters in fiction.
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