Creatural Fictions: Human-Animal Relationships in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literature (Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature)

Examining how ideas about species, sexuality, and gender link to 20th- and 21st-century literary texts, this wide-ranging collection of essays explores the complicated yet evocative relationship between animals and humans within a literary context. Contributors discuss writers like Franz Kafka, J. R. Ackerley, and Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi. Introduction. "Literature beyond the human" / David Herman -- Literary modernisms, animal worlds, and trans-species entanglements. "Kafka's animal stories: modernist form and inter-species narrative" / Marianne Dekoven; "The tortured animals of modernity: animal studies and Italian literature" / Damiano Benvegnù; "The black sheep: Djuna Barnes's dark pastoral" / Andrew Kalaidjian -- Literature beyond the human I: species, sexuality, and gender. "'Becoming men' and animal sacrifice: contemporary literary examples" / Josephine Donovan; "A tail for two theorists: the problem of the female monster in Katherine Dunn's Geek love" / Rajesh K. Reddy; "Friendship; or, representing more-than-human subjectivities and spaces in J. R. Ackerley's My dog tulip" / Shun Yin Kiang -- Literature beyond the human II: human-animal interactions across genres. "'A little wildness': negotiating relationships between human and nonhuman in historical romance" / Christy Tidwell; "Animal worlds and anthropological machines in Yann Martel's millennial novel Life of pi" / Hilary Thompson; "'Like words printed on skin': desire, animal masks, and multispecies relationships in Monique Truong's The book of salt" / Nandini Thiyagarajan -- Human-animal entanglements in late-20th- and early-21st-century fiction. "Horsescapes: space, nation, and human-horse relations in Jane Smiley's Horse heaven" / Jopi Nyman; "Animal others, other people: exploring cetacean personhood in Zakes Mda's The whale caller" / Craig Smith; "Ghostly presences: tracing the animal in Julia Leigh's The hunter" / Roman Bartosch Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction: Literature beyond the Human....Pages 1-15 Front Matter....Pages 17-17 Kafka’s Animal Stories: Modernist Form and Interspecies Narrative....Pages 19-40 The Tortured Animals of Modernity: Animal Studies and Italian Literature....Pages 41-63 The Black Sheep: Djuna Barnes’s Dark Pastoral....Pages 65-87 Front Matter....Pages 89-89 “Becoming Men” and Animal Sacrifice: Contemporary Literary Examples....Pages 91-107 A Tail for Two Theorists: The Problem of the Female Monster in Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love....Pages 109-125 Friendship; Or, Representing More-Than-Human Subjectivities and Spaces in J. R. Ackerley’s My Dog Tulip ....Pages 127-148 Front Matter....Pages 149-149 “A Little Wildness”: Negotiating Relationships between Human and Nonhuman in Historical Romance....Pages 151-171 Animal Worlds and Anthropological Machines in Yann Martel’s Millennial Novel Life of Pi....Pages 173-192 “Like Words Printed on Skin”: Desire, Animal Masks, and Multispecies Relationships in Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt ....Pages 193-213 Front Matter....Pages 215-215 Horsescapes: Space, Nation, and Human-Horse Relations in Jane Smiley’s Horse Heaven ....Pages 217-239 Animal Others, Other People: Exploring Cetacean Personhood in Zakes Mda’s The Whale Caller ....Pages 241-257 Ghostly Presences: Tracing the Animal in Julia Leigh’s The Hunter ....Pages 259-275 Back Matter....Pages 277-290 This volume explores how twentieth- and twenty-first-century literary texts engage with relationships between humans and other animals. Written by forward-thinking early-career scholars, as well as established experts in the field, the chapters discuss key texts in the emergent canon of animal narratives, including Franz Kafka's animal stories, Yann Martel's The Life of Pi, Zakes Mda's The Whale Caller, and others. The volume is divided into four main sections. Two period-focused sections center on modernism and on late-twentieth- and twenty-first-century fiction, while two further sections foreground the more general project of theory building in literary animal studies, examining interconnections among concepts of species, sexuality, gender, and genre. The volume also raises issues that extend beyond the academic community, including ethical dimensions of human-animal relationships and the problems of species loss and diminishing biodiversity.