The Cultural Work of Animal Narrators in the Contemporary Sub-Saharan African Novel

Author:

Walonen Michael

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Over the early decades of the twenty-first century there has been a marked rise of works of African fiction recounted by first-person animal narrators—prompted by such historical vectors as the accelerating onrush of climate change (with the mass extinctions it promises to bring), the instrumentalization of animals and their reduction to the status of commodities under neoliberal capitalism, the rise of animal studies as an academic field with its promotion of an awareness of speciesism, and the continuing effort to culturally decolonize residual imperialist discourses that suppressed indigenous African modes of knowledge. This essay argues these animalnarrated works of fiction explore a wide range of thematic focuses but share a number of distinct commonalities as well: attention to the natural world or breakdown of the conceptual dichotomy between man-made and natural worlds, a desire to provide alternative perspectives on human society, a calling into question of humanity's age-old idealization of itself, and a revaluation of nonhuman animals.

Publisher

Indiana University Press

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3