Political Theory and the Animal / Human Relationship (SUNY Series in New Political Science)

The division of life into animal and human is one of the fundamental schisms found within political societies. Ironically, given the immense influence of the animal/human divide, especially upon power dynamics, the discipline in charge of theorizing and studying power political science and theory has had little to say about the animal/human. This book seeks to amend this vast oversight. Acknowledging the complexity of the changing differences between animals and humans, the contributors explore such topics as Marx, Freud, the animal, and civilization; dog breeding, racism, and democracy; the meaningful silences of animals; how sovereignty reconfigures the animal/human; and the paradoxical struggles against being dehumanized among immigrant workers in a slaughterhouse. "Political Theory and the Animal/Human Relationship" is necessary reading for anyone who wants to understand how power has been influenced by the animal/human divide, and what we can do about it." Contents 6 Introduction the Importance of the Animal/human Question for Political Theory 8 Political Theory and the Animal/Human Relationship 15 Part I: Toward Posthumanism 16 Part II: Ironies of Civilization, Sovereignty, and Democracy 17 Part III: Meaningful Speech, Silenced Voices 20 Conclusion 23 Notes 24 Part I: Toward Posthumanism 28 Chapter 1. Marx and the Human/animal Dialectic 30 Marx, Workers, and Animals: Do Workers Dream of Sheep? 34 Marx’s Human/animal Dualism: Dialectical Dualism and Alienated Speciesism 43 Marx and Animal Politics Today 49 Notes 52 Chapter 2. Darwin and Freud’s Posthumanist Political Theory 56 Political Theorists and the Animal Question 56 The Significance of Darwin and Freud 61 Notes 75 Part II: Ironies of Civilization, Sovereignty, and Democracy 80 Chapter 3. Domesticating Bodies Race, Species, Sex, and Citizenship 82 Domesticating Nature Through Breeding 84 The Biopolitical Construction of Race 90 Domestication and Democratization 96 Conclusions 103 Notes 104 Chapter 4. Sovereignty and the Wolves of Isle Royale 110 Introduction 110 Background: The Isle Royale Wolf Study 112 The Miniature Model 114 Interventions 118 The Question of Animal Sovereignty 121 Zoopolis and Moral Sovereignty 125 Sovereignty and Community 129 Conclusion 130 Notes 131 Chapter 5. Agamben in the Slaughterhouse on Humanimal Politics, Immigrant Workers, and the State of Exception 136 Value and Vermin 139 Slaughter and Sovereignty 143 Animal and Worker 148 From a New Ontology to Counterhegemony 158 Notes 162 Part III: Meaningful Speech, Silenced Voices 174 Chapter 6. Foucault’s Dog 176 Dogs and Doppelgangers 177 Foucault’s Inner Animal 181 Docile Bodies, Docile Animals 185 Conclusion 188 Notes 189 Chapter 7. The Silence of the Lambs 194 Introduction: A Posthumanist Future? 194 Constituting the “human” and “citizen” 197 Silence and Obedience 197 Speech and the Political: I Speak, Therefore, I Am 199 Building Silence/dismantling the Human 203 Relearning Compassion Through Silence 204 Silent Yielding: Hearing the Unheard 209 Merging Worlds Through Yielding 213 Conclusion 215 Notes 218 Bibliography 220 Contributors 232 Index 234 Examines how the animal/human divide has influenced power dynamics. The division of life into animal and human is one of the fundamental schisms found within political societies. Ironically, given the immense influence of the animal/human divide, especially upon power dynamics, the discipline in charge of theorizing and studying power—political science and theory—has had little to say about the animal/human. This book seeks to amend this vast oversight. Acknowledging the complexity of the changing differences between animals and humans, the contributors explore such topics as Marx, Freud, the animal, and civilization; dog breeding, racism, and democracy; the meaningful silences of animals; how sovereignty reconfigures the animal/human; and the paradoxical struggles against being dehumanized among immigrant workers in a slaughterhouse. Political Theory and the Animal/Human Relationship is necessary reading for anyone who wants to understand how power has been influenced by the animal/human divide, and what we can do about it. Judith Grant is Professor of Political Science at Ohio University and the author of Fundamental Feminism: Contesting the Core Concepts of Feminist Theory. Vincent G. Jungkunz is Associate Professor of Political Science at Ohio University. "The division of life into animal and human is one of the fundamental schisms found within political societies. Ironically, given the immense influence of the animal/human divide, especially upon power dynamics, the discipline in charge of theorizing and studying pwoer--political science and theory--has had little to say about the animal/human. This book seeks to amend this vast oversight. Acknowledging the complexity of the changing differences between animals and humans, the contributors explore such topics as Marx, Freud, the animal, and civilization; dog breeding, racism, and democracy; the meaningful silences of animals; how sovereignty reconfigures the animal/human; and the paradoxical struggles against being dehumanized among immigrant workers in a slaughterhouse. Political Theory and the Animal/Human Relationship is necessary reading for anyone who wants to understand how power has been influenced by the animal/human divide, and what we can do about it"--Page [4] of cover Introduction : The Importance of the Animal / Human Question for Political Theory / Judith Grant and Vincent G. Jungkunz Marx and the Human/Animal Dialectic / Bradley J. Macdonald Darwin and Freud's Post-Humanist Political Theory / Judith Grant Domesticating Bodies : Race, Species, Sex and Citizenship / Claire Rasmussen Sovereignty and the Wolves of Isle Royale / Rafi Youatt Immigrant Workers, Animals, and Sovereignty in the Slaughterhouse / Paul Apostolidis Foucault's Dog / Katherine E. Young The Silence of the Lambs / Vincent G. Jungkunz.