Animals appear not just as biological creatures, but as vehicles of meaning for human imagination, mind and culture. Animal life may form the basis for an animalizing imagination that can enhance our cultural, religious and aesthetic sensibilities. This imagination is rooted in the pre-modern affective relationship between shamans and their familiars, but can be tracked to our post-modern ecological crisis, where we can reclaim a totemic identification with animals as signifiers of a new ecological understanding.

Autorentext

Alan Bleakley is Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Post-Compulsory Education at Cornwall College.

Inhalt

Introduction The Burden of the Beasts Aesthetic Animals Suffering Animals Literary Beasts Animals and Information Postscript Index