Reading Animals: Animals in American Literature and Theory

general courses

Remote learning
Self-reading

The goal of the course is to develop the students’ interest in the new critical perspective of animal studies and to provide them with the tools required to use this perspective in order to critically read works of American literature. In order to achieve this aim, students are going to read canonical texts of American literature (e.g. John Steinbeck's short stories, Hemingway’s short stories) but from a different perspective: trying to conceptualize the role of animals and animality in these texts. The students’ reflection is going to be aided by critical texts selected in a way that makes them useful for the study of specific literary works and films. The students will also read lesser known and newer lilterary works and watch films that overtly focus on the human-animal relationship.

The perspective of animal studies – often associated with posthumanism, ecocriticism and environment al humanities – is increasingly gaining recognition in contemporary literary theory. This perspective makes is possible to both re-read canonical literary oeuvres and to conceptualize the change that can currently be observed in contemporary literature, that is the foregrounding of the human-animal relationship, often in the context of basic ethical questions.

The goal of the course is to develop the students’ interest in the new critical perspective of animal studies and to provide them with the tools required to use this perspective in order to critically read works of American literature and

ilm. The course opens with a theoretical introduction that contextualizes the increased interest in animals in lilterature and culture as part of the larger turns in critical theory, mostly the interest in the relationship of ethics and literature, the affective turn and the counterlinguistic turn (Derrida 2002, Wolfe 2003, Weil 2012).

Next, using theoretical texts (Glenney Boggs 2012) and historical sources (Anderson 2004), the students analyze the role of animals and the concept of animality as foundational for the shaping of early American identity.

Representations of animals in nineteenth century literature, sentimental, realist and naturalist constitute the next module of classes.

Even though modernist literature is usually disinterested in deep psychological portraits of animals, assuming the animal studies perspective makes it possible to read certain canonical texts of modernism (for example Hemingway’s short stories about hunting) in a new light (Armstrong 2008, Wolfe 2003).

The second half of the course focuses on contemporary literature and film. The topics to be discussed include the anthropomorphism of animals in Disney's movies, the use of animal figures in horror film (Hitchcock's The Birds and Spielberg's Jaws). We will also watch independent movies that comment on the entaglement of animals in human social issues (e.g. Samuel Fuller's White Dog).

In contemporary literature, reflection on the human-animal bond – that is, both a bond between an individual human and a specific animal serving as a springboard for broader refection but also a more abstract postanthropocentric reflection about the place of humans in a non-fully human world – often becomes the primary theme of literary works. In this segment of the course, students analyze the formal strategies used by contemporary authors to enable such reflection, contrasting them with strategies used in the past.

Virginia Anderson, Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America (2004)

Mark Twain “A Dog’s Tale"

Jack London, The Call of the Wild

John Steinbeck, The Gift (from The Red Pony)

Dogville shorts - short films

Ernest Hemingway, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber"

William Faulkner, "The Bear"

Walt Disney, Bambi and The Lion King

Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds

Samuel Fuller, White Dog

Steven Spielberg, Jaws

Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves

Karen Russell, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

Amy Hempel, "The Dog of My Marriage"

THEORETICAL TEXTS

Erica Fudge "Pets" (2011)

Kari Weil, „Thinking Animals: Why Animal Studies Now?” (2012)

Susan McHugh and Robert McKay „Being and Seeing Literary Animals” (2004)

Jacques Derrida, „The Animal That Therefore I Am (More to Follow)” (2002)

Donna Haraway, When Species Meet (2008), fragmenty; Companion Species Manifesto, excerpts (2003)

Jennifer Mason, Civilized Creatures: Urban Animals and American Literature, 1850-1900

Colleen Glenney Boggs, Animalia Americana (2012), excerpts

Phillip Armstrong, What Animals Mean in the Fiction of Modernity (2008), fragmenty

Nicole Shukin, Animal Capital (2009), excerpts, “Feeling Power” (2012)

Susan McHugh, Animal Stories: Narrating Across Species Lines (2011)

Cary Wolfe, Animal Rites (2003), excerpts

Knowledge:

A student:

- becomes acquainted with/deepens knowledge of the geographical, historical, political, economic, cultural and social reality of English-speaking countries

- becomes acquainted with/deepens knowledge of symbolic aspects of interactions within one culture and between different cultures

Skills:

A student:

- can apply basic/extended methodology of literary studies

- can present the knowledge acquired in a logical and clear manner, both orally and in writing

Social competencies:

A student:

- understands the need to express oneself in a coherent, clear, logical and precise manner in order to function effectively in contacts with others

- acknowledges the character of problems, conflicts, dilemmas and seeks the best solutions

- practises comprehension and speaking in English at B2+ level

Participation and attendance

Short written assignments or presentation

Final exam