Animals as Characters

general courses

In this course we will discuss animals in and outside of literature, starting with the reemergence of animal characters in the nineteenth century children and young adult books alongside the first animal rights advocacy groups, stopping at Flush by Virginia Woolf and ending with Watership Down by Richard Adams. A short excursion in the direction of Thomas Wyatt, “Whose List to Hunt, I Know Where Is a Hind” should be expected. We will examine "the animal" as a philosophical concept, starting with Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, Peter Singer (all excerpts, naturally), Donna Haraway, The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness, as well as an essay or two from Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions We shall also look at documentaries, such as Blood Lions, as well as amateur testimonies and video presentations of human-animal bond on social media to critically examine their content.

In this course we will discuss animals in and outside of literature, starting with the reemergence of animal characters in the nineteenth century children and young adult books alongside the first animal rights advocacy groups (e.g., Black Beauty by Anna Sewell and Peter the Rabbit by Beatrix Potter), stopping at Flush by Virginia Woolf and ending with Watership Down by Richard Adams. A short excursion in the direction of Thomas Wyatt, “Whose List to Hunt, I Know Where Is a Hind” should be expected. We will examine "the animal" as a philosophical concept, starting with Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, Peter Singer (all excerpts, naturally), Donna Haraway, The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness, as well as an essay or two from Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (Cass R. Sunstein and Martha C. Nussbaum, eds.) We shall also look at documentaries, such as Blood Lions, as well as amateur testimonies and video presentations of human-animal bond on social media to critically examine their content. Students will gain ecological awareness, and cultural evidence to support this awareness.

Our discussion will be rooted simultaneously in literature, philosophy, and social criticism. We will learn basic terms of animal ethics, which is how we call the study of our relationship with animals, within the different philosophical traditions: utilitarianism, natural rights, and ecofeminism, among others. We will choose the most fitting philosophical approach: Do we want to argue that it is immoral to ignore the suffering of others, the way the followers of utilitarianism do? Or would we rather argue that animals have the fundamental right to be treated with respect, the way animal-rights theorists do, or would we rather use the concept of the intersection of oppression and nature/culture split which enables the oppression of female and nonhuman bodies as our starting point, following the ecofeminists? In any case, our close reading will be rooted in the text. We will learn how to distinguish narrative techniques and how to stay close to the animal’s voice. We will read Sara Maintland’s Gossip from the Forest in excerpts to re-ground ourselves in forest-related storytelling.

We will begin with the reemergence of animal characters in the nineteenth century books for children (Beatrix Potter’s “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”), with a glimpse at the myth of Orpheus and Aesop’s fable “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs.” We will include the impact of 1876 Cruelty to Animals Act and the formation of the animal rights advocacy groups, as reflected in Emma Donoghue's short story "Fox on the Line" and Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty (1877).

We will discuss Flush (1933) by Virginia Woolf, a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, in which Woolf uses stream of consciousness to experiment with a non-human perspective. We will proceed with animals in political literature in George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945). We will discuss the current state of animal rights, as well as the animal rights' abuses, such as the practice of “canned hunting” of lions, and compare it with canned hunting of bison in Polish virgin forests. We will expand our vocabulary to include such terms as hunt sabbing (acting as a hunt saboteur; engaging in direct activity to prevent hunting). This seminar will prove to be culturally, socially, and politically engaging, but the reading of literature will form its basis.

Teacher's imput:

• short lectures and visual presentations

• structure and guidance

• profuse comments on written responses

Students' imput:

• group-work / small-group discussions

• in-class discussions

• 1 2-page guiding literary animal writing (can be a short story)

• 4 1-page (up to 1 1/2 page) reader's responses

• 1 research project for a panel presentation

• mini-presentations conference style (each panel 1/2 hour)

• 1 1-page peer panel evaluation (not of your own, but of your classmates)

Philosophy (in excerpts, handouts, teacher's presentions):

Giorgio Agamben, The Open: Man and Animal (2004)

Peter Singer, Animal Liberation. Updated Edition (2009)

Jacques Derrida, The Beast & the Sovereign (2011)

Sustein, Cass R. and Martha Nussbaum, Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (2005)

Marti Kheel, Nature Ethics: An Ecofeminist Perspective (2007)

David Farrell Krell, Derrida and Our Animal Others (2013)

Donna Haraway, The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness (2003)

Fiction (whole texts, unless otherwise indicated):

Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabit (1902)

Anna Sewell, Black Beauty (1877)

Franz Kafka, "A Report to an Academy" (1917)

Virginia Woolf, Flush (1933)

George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945)

E.B. White, Charlotte's Web (1952)

Richard Adams, Watership Down (1972)

James Duffy, The Revolt of the Teddy Bears (1985)

J.M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello (first 4 chapters) (2003)

Vicky Myron, Devey: The Small Library Cat Who Touched the World (2008)

Nonfiction (excerpts):

Sara Maitland, Gossip from the Forest: The Tangled Roots of Ours Forests and Fairytales (2013)

Philip Lymbery, Farmaggedon (2014)

Adam Wajrak, Wilki (2015)

Films:

Charlotte's Web (1973)

Watership Down (1978)

Rabbit a la Berlin (2009)

Farmaggedon (2015)

Blood Lions (2015)

Pokot (2017)

Students will become familiarized with a variety of approaches regarding the human-animal bond. In addition, students will examine contemporary moral dilemmas (compassion versus self-pity; the principle of interdependence versus the right to dominate the earth), and will learn how to read them critically. Primarily, student will interact with the animals speaking for themselves: demanding dignity and the right to live. Students will be able to observe their own instinctual and intellectual responses to these voices, and to embed these responses in various, often contrasting, philosophical approaches. Students will be actively improving their critical thinking skills, argumentative skills, and writing.

K-W03, K-W06, K-W12, K-W13

K-U01, K-U02, K-U03, K-U05, K-U12, K-U13, K-U14, K-U15, K-U16

K-K01, K-K03, K-K05, K-K08

I will be using the point method and grid to assess student imput. The overall number of points for various assignments (in-class participation, 4 reader's responses, 1 guiding animal piece of writing, 1 panel presentation, and 1 peer review of presentations create the final grade) will be computed to create the final grade.

Here is the proposed grading grid:

Student's name

5

Group Project/Presentation

30/30

6 Writing Submission

40/40

In-class participation/excellence

(includes reflecting on reading assignments, reporting to class on group work, taking part in general discussions, and participating in debates) 30/30

Total

100

GRADING GRID:

90- ∞ = 5 80-9 = 4.5

70-79= 4 60-69= 3.5 50-59 POINTS= 3

Students can gain additional 5 points for excellence for in-class participation and group project presentations. This additional 5 points will be added to the final grade.

Written responses grading system:

V++ 6 points (outstanding, surpassing expectations)

V+ 5 points (excellent)

V(+) 4 points (would like to give you V+ but cannot; will point out issues in need of improvement)

V 3 points (fine)

V(-) 2 points (would like to give you V but cannot; will point out issues in need of improvement)

V- 1 point (serious improvement needed; see comments)

Attendance and in-class participation: 30%.

1 creative-writing submission: write about 2 pages about your guiding literary animal: 20%.

Group project / presentation: 40%.

1 panel review assignment: 10%

Your Guiding Literary Animal creative writing assignment: this submission, at first glance a piece of personal writing, shall be grounded in the reading of your favorite short story (a collection of short stories or your favorite novel); it has to include at least one direct quotation as well as your own ideas.

Presentations: Students will be divided into 6 workgroups. Each workgroup will receive a specific task. Short (8 min per person; 30 min per workgroup) presentations are meant to give an account, in a concise manner, of students’ research and to facilitate the communication between workgroups.

Panel Review Assignment: this last assignment will encourage active listening: after watching all presentations, students will write one page summaries, answering a set of questions (which panel seemed the most efficient, what you liked about other panels, and what you are the most proud of regarding your own panel presentation).