Journal article
Revisiting the ‘Problem’ of Anthropomorphism through Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Animals (2014)
Australian Literary Studies, Vol.34(1)
2019
Abstract
In Ceridwen Dovey's short story cycle, Only the Animals, inter-textual allusions to established fictional animals are imposed onto settings of human conflict and ventriloquised through diverse animal subjects. This paper defends narrating from a non-human animal perspective, not as a radical act, but as a move to reinvigorate our conceptions of human-animal relations. Meaningful encounters between human and non-human animals are presented with a recognition of the impossibility of full and mutual inter-species understanding. The juxtaposition of the limits of figuring literary animals with human/animal intimacy and incomprehension marks Dovey's work as a logical progression of some ideas presented in J. M. Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello. This paper reads Dovey's deployment of textual self-referentiality and overt intersection with Coetzee's work in Only the Animals as a reflexive writing form that works to critique another representational dispossession: that of anthropocentric realism. Both works understand that humans do not share language with non-human animals but we often meet questions of the animal through stories. This makes the stories we tell highly significant; indeed - vital - components of the cultural landscape.
Details
- Title
- Revisiting the ‘Problem’ of Anthropomorphism through Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Animals (2014)
- Authors
- Clare Archer-Lean (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- Australian Literary Studies, Vol.34(1); 21
- Publisher
- University of Queensland Press
- Date published
- 2019
- DOI
- 10.20314/als.80ac7927cd
- ISSN
- 0004-9697
- Organisation Unit
- School of Business and Creative Industries; Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Creative Industries - Legacy; Sustainability Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450631802621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
418 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Web Of Science research areas
- Literature, African, Australian, Canadian
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites