Reading Cats and Dogs
Throughout the world, people spend much of their time with animal companions of various kinds, frequently with cats and dogs. What meanings do we make of these relationships? In the ecocritical collection Reading cats and Dogs, a diverse array of scholars considers the philosophy, literature, and film devoted to human relationships with companion species. In addition to illuminating famous animal stories by Beatrix Potter, Jack London, Italo Svevo, and Michael Ondaatje, readers are introduced to the dog poems of Shuntaro Tanikawa, a Turkish documentary on stray cats as neighbourhood companions, and the representation of diverse animal companions in Cameroonian novels. Focusing on "Stray and Feral Companions", "The Usefulness of Companion Animals", and "Problematizing Companion Animals", Reading Cats and Dogs aims both to confirm and topple readers' assumptions about the fellow travellers with whom we share our lives, our streets and fields, and our planet. Fifteen contributors from various countries reveal the aesthetic, ethical, and psychological complexities of our multispecies relationships, demonstrating the richness of ecocritical animal studies.
Prologue by Kev Reynolds
Introduction by Françoise Besson and Scott Slovic
Section I: Stray and Feral Companions
- Karla Armbruster, “Our Feral Future: Dog Stories and the Anthropocene”
- Önder Cetin, “When You Love the Stray Animals as Much as Your Own Pets: The Case of Companion Animals in Turkey”
- Marianne Marroum, “Identity, Love, and Abuse in Laila al-Othman’s Cat Stories”
- Lorraine Kerslake, “Of Mice, Rabbits, and Other Companions in Beatrix Potter’s More than Human World”
- Niroshima Gunasekera, “Walking Through the Animal Kingdom: A Search for the Near and Dear”
- Qianqian Cheng, “From the Forbidden City to the Locked-down Megalopolis: Reading the Behaviors of Cat Lovers in China”
Section II: The Usefulness of Companion Animals
- Anna Re, “Memorable Dogs of Italian Literature”
- Claire Cazejous-Augé, “Cross-species Cooperation: Hunting with Dogs in Contemporary American Nature Writing”
- Keita Hatooka, “Let the Sleeping Dogs Tell Lies: Companionship and Solitude in Shuntaro Tanikawa’s Dog Poems”
- Kenneth Toah Nsah, “Of Dogs, Horses, and Buffalos in Cameroon: Companion Animals in Cameroonian Fiction”
Section III: Problematizing Companion Animals
- Chen Hong, “The Plight of Dogs in the Country-City Gap: Reading Chinese Dog Narratives across Genres”
- Wendy Woodward, “Cat Killers, Black Diamonds, and a Talking Cat: Feline Companions in Post-Transitional South African Fiction”
- Zélia M. Bora, “The Paradoxical World of Animal Representation in the Brazilian Novel As Horas Nuas in Light of Greek Philosophy”
- Athane Adrahane, “Canine Initiation into Ecowisdom”
Epilogue by Françoise Besson, Zélia M. Bora, Marianne Marroum, and Scott Slovic
Index
Françoise Besson is an emerita professor at the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaures, in Toulouse, France Zélia M. Bora is the founder of the Commission for Animal Welfare and contributes to the postgraduate program at the Federal University of Paraiba in Brazil. Marianne Marroum is an associate professor of English and comparative literature at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon. Scott Slovic is university distinguished professor of environmental humanities at the University of Idaho in the US.
| Pm Supplier | Ingram Publisher Services UK (NBNi) |
|---|---|
| Pm Publisher | Lexington Books |
| Pm Isbn 10 | 1793611068 |
| Pm Isbn 13 | 9781793611062 |
| Pm Publication Date | 2020-12-30 |
| Pm Width | 160 |
| Pm Height | 19 |
| Pm Author | Besson,Françoise, Bora,Zélia M, Marroum,Marianne, Slovic,Scott, Reynolds,Kev |
| Pm Longness | 241 |
- Companion Animals in World Literature
- Author: Besson,Françoise, Bora,Zélia M, Marroum,Marianne, Slovic,Scott, Reynolds,Kev
- Page Count: 300
- Publication Date: 2020-12-30
Reading Cats and Dogs
- Companion Animals in World Literature
- Author: Besson,Françoise, Bora,Zélia M, Marroum,Marianne, Slovic,Scott, Reynolds,Kev
- Page Count: 300
- Publication Date: 2020-12-30