Handbook

Susan McHugh asks: How do animal agents appear in literature, and with what material effects on the world around them This subject examines the the representation of non-human animals and the natural world in order to ask questions about representation itself. When we think about nonhuman animals we are asking questions about the human and its beyond, drawing in questions of race, gender class and the politics of difference. Asking questions about nonhuman representation asks us to consider the material effects of literary techniques from allegory to realism. The subject might examine these questions through prose fiction, poetry, drama, the literary essay and film texts from the early modern period to the twenty-first century. Similarly, the subject might address philosophical and ethical writings about the ethics and politics of the nonhuman and the refraction of these texts in literary terms.