Animal Fiction in Late Twentieth-Century Canada

__Animal Fiction in Late Twentieth-Century Canada__ fulfils a vital contribution to the conversation surrounding animal representation as a point of continuity in national narratives and supports the idea that focusing on narratives of responsibility and care influences better relations with both non-human animals and across settler-Indigenous boundaries. Alice Higgs engages with on-going debates regarding reconciliation by demonstrating that it is imperative to critique settler colonial environmental frameworks and place autonomy back into Indigenous communities by bringing Indigenous practices of custodianship and relationality to bear more generally. This book also develops a number of conversations in animal studies in relation to the politics of representation. Higgs studies a range of canonical Canadian authors, demonstrating a progress across the period in which it is possible to identify the emergence of a literary pro-animal turn. Acknowledgements Contents Chapter 1: Introduction: Nation, Identity, Species Animal Writing in Canada ‘Nature Fakers’: Ernest Seton Thompson and Charles G. D. Roberts Why Write About Animals? The Chapters Chapter 2: Reconfiguring Animal Narratives in Farley Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf (1963) A New Wolf Story Howling: The Signal for Danger? Who Is Watching Whom? The Wolf Gaze Wolfish Anthropomorphism Settler Stories and Indigenous Erasure Never Cry Wolf: A Culturally Visible Text Conclusion: A New Kind of Story about Animals Chapter 3: Trauma on Display: Women’s Wilderness Writing and Animal Ciphers in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing (1972) and Life Before Man (1979) Violence, Displacement and Patriarchal Objectivity in Surfacing Visualising Victimhood in Hunting Displays Fictionalising Canadian Complicity in Violence Against Non-Human Animals Indigeneity, Animality and Proximity to the Land The Pseudo-Wilderness of the Museum in Life Before Man Socially Politicised Spaces of Interaction with Animal Bodies Forging Personal Identity through Interaction with Museum Display Women’s Wilderness Writing and the Representational failure of a Pro-Animal Ethics Chapter 4: Writing Bear(s): Thematising the Canadian Animal Story in Marian Engel’s Bear (1976) Framing Narrative ‘Failure’ as Narrative Popular Culture as a Representational Reference Bear Asserts His Materiality through Violence ‘Animal Tracks in the Margin’: Meta-Narrative Engagement with Canadian Animal Writing A Story about Writing a Story about a Bear Chapter 5: Queership, Kinship, Careship: Adopting An Ethics of Care in Timothy Findley’s The Wars (1977) and Not Wanted on the Voyage (1984) Defining an Ethics of Care Re-imagining Heroic Duty through an Ethics of Care in The Wars (1977) Horses as Victims: Military Coded Violence Towards Horses Queer Resistance Camp Climatic Heroism Camp Genesis: Caring for those Not Wanted on the Voyage (1984) Mrs Noyes and Her Feminist Care Tradition Rescuing those ‘Not Wanted’ Caring for the Ark Queering, Caring, Kinship: Conclusions Chapter 6: Unsettling Coyote: Engaging with Indigenous Concepts of Care in Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s The Cure for Death by Lightning (1996) Eco-Sexual Spaces and Cross-Species Relations Queer[ing] Coyote Man, Men, Coyote, Coyotes Conclusion: The Question of Species in Indigenous-Settler Conflict Chapter 7: Conclusion Bibliography Primary Sources Secondary Sources Pictures Index