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Animal studies
Feb. 7th, 2019 08:53 pmAnimmal studies is a subdiscipline of the humanities that deals with questions of human-animal relations, the features that distinguish human animals from non-human animals, the portrayal of animals in art and literature, and the extent to which animality is a social construct; it interrogates human beliefs and actions in the light of the affect those beliefs and actions have on animals and proposes alternative ways of relating to and thinking about animals.
While features of animal studies have existed in the humanities for centuries (the first known work of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, addresses questions that crop up in animal studies), formal investigation was largely kickstarted by Jacques Derrida's inquiries into what separates humans from animals, how we define animals, and how animals define us.
Animal studies has a lot of intersections with other theories and methods of inquiry including cyborg theory, monster theory, Marxism, and post-modernism. Animals are everywhere, once we start to look, and sometimes we find them even within the bounds of our own species; treatment of humans as non-human animals is an important area of inquiry.
Barring a radical change, my thesis will be using animal studies to interrogate the works of Olaf Stapledon. It's an approach that hasn't been tried before, although there is literature that discusses the relevance of Stapledon to the history of animals in speculative fiction, and I'm hoping to yield some interesting results.
While features of animal studies have existed in the humanities for centuries (the first known work of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, addresses questions that crop up in animal studies), formal investigation was largely kickstarted by Jacques Derrida's inquiries into what separates humans from animals, how we define animals, and how animals define us.
Animal studies has a lot of intersections with other theories and methods of inquiry including cyborg theory, monster theory, Marxism, and post-modernism. Animals are everywhere, once we start to look, and sometimes we find them even within the bounds of our own species; treatment of humans as non-human animals is an important area of inquiry.
Barring a radical change, my thesis will be using animal studies to interrogate the works of Olaf Stapledon. It's an approach that hasn't been tried before, although there is literature that discusses the relevance of Stapledon to the history of animals in speculative fiction, and I'm hoping to yield some interesting results.
