Autorentext

Robert McKay is Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of Sheffield, where he co-directs the Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre. He has published widely on the politics of species in contemporary literature and film and co-edited several volumes, including Animal Satire (2023) and The Palgrave Handbook of Animals and Literature (2021). He is the co-editor, with Susan McHugh and John Miller, of the book series Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature.

Klappentext

This book traces a radical politics of species across the work of four significant Anglophone authors of the late twentieth century: Brigid Brophy, Alice Walker, J.M. Coetzee and David Foster Wallace. Presenting an exciting and original perspective, Robert McKay argues that these literary figures tell anthropofugal stories, in which a tendency towards animals coincides with a desire to flee from humanity. Their writing disavows allegiance to humanity's various guises and ideals, dismissing human distinctiveness and disturbing human privilege to reimagine life with so-called animals. While deeply grounded in the practice of literary close reading, Anthropofugal Fictions is also a work of philosophy and theory that shows how doubts about species identity lie at the heart of live debates about gender, sexuality, race and ethics. It is a challenging and provocative account of what it means not to be human, and of living amongst animals without species difference as a legitimation of one's actions.

Zusammenfassung
Reveals how animal rights and species identity are reimagined in literature of the late twentieth century.