Animals and the human imagination : a companion to animal studies / edited by Aaron Gross and Anne Vallely ; foreword by Jonathan Safran Foer and epilogue by Wendy Doniger.
pt. 1. Other animals across cultures -- part 2. Animal matters : human/animal and the contemporary west -- part 3. Animal others : theorizing animal/human.
Summary
Human beings have long imagined their subjectivity, ethics, and ancestry with and through animals, yet not until the mid-twentieth century did contemporary thought reflect critically on animals' significance in human self-conception. Thinkers such as French philosopher Jacques Derrida, South African novelist J.M. Coetzee, and American theorist Donna Haraway have initiated rigorous inquiries into the question of the animal, now blossoming in a number of directions. It is no longer strange to say that if animals did not exist, we would have to invent them. This interdisciplinary and.