The Human–Animal Boundary
Exploring the Line in Philosophy and Fiction
The Human–Animal Boundary
Exploring the Line in Philosophy and Fiction
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English
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Description
The Human–Animal Boundary shifts the traditional anthropocentric focus of philosophy and literature by combining the question “what is human?” with the question “what is animal?” The objective is to expand the imaginative scope of human–animal relationships by combining perspectives from different disciplines, traditions, and cultural backgrounds.
Bantra and Wenning edited and selected this excellent, diverse collection of scholarly essays that reevaluate or break human-nonhuman boundaries. The latest volume in Lexington's 'Ecocritical Theory and Practice' series, the book provides a welcome complement to the resulting discourse at two international conferences by the same name, held at the editors' home universities in Puerto Rico and Macau. The innovative essays demonstrate that boundaries have two sides. Humans and animals are different, mostly in self-appointed ways, but also markedly similar in terms of culture and innovation. For example, essays on Aesop’s fables and the Ramayana epic argue that humans are not only similar to some other animals but are, in certain cases, even beholden to them. Narratives of difference, such as Cartesian subjectivism and Heideggerian phenomenology, are juxtaposed with counter narratives from ancient texts and modern biology to an enlightening effect. Summing Up: Recommended.
From Aesop’s and Heidegger’s animals to McKibben’s and Bekoff’s anthropocene, the dividing line between homo sapiens and the world’s other species has been supported and abolished, attacked and embraced. As ecocriticism has developed into a discipline, scholars have seen this same human/animal distinction as central to our understanding of ecology and the rise of environmentalism. Batra and Wenning bring together essays that make clear why this debate is so central to our understanding of the role of animals in human life and the role of humans in the lives of animals.
Bantra and Wenning edited and selected this excellent, diverse collection of scholarly essays that reevaluate or break human-nonhuman boundaries. The latest volume in Lexington's 'Ecocritical Theory and Practice' series, the book provides a welcome complement to the resulting discourse at two international conferences by the same name, held at the editors' home universities in Puerto Rico and Macau. The innovative essays demonstrate that boundaries have two sides. Humans and animals are different, mostly in self-appointed ways, but also markedly similar in terms of culture and innovation. For example, essays on Aesop’s fables and the Ramayana epic argue that humans are not only similar to some other animals but are, in certain cases, even beholden to them. Narratives of difference, such as Cartesian subjectivism and Heideggerian phenomenology, are juxtaposed with counter narratives from ancient texts and modern biology to an enlightening effect. Summing Up: Recommended.
From Aesop’s and Heidegger’s animals to McKibben’s and Bekoff’s anthropocene, the dividing line between homo sapiens and the world’s other species has been supported and abolished, attacked and embraced. As ecocriticism has developed into a discipline, scholars have seen this same human/animal distinction as central to our understanding of ecology and the rise of environmentalism. Batra and Wenning bring together essays that make clear why this debate is so central to our understanding of the role of animals in human life and the role of humans in the lives of animals.
Nandita Batra is currently Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez. She is the editor of Of Mice and Men: Animals and Human Culture and This Watery World: Humans and the Sea.
Mario Wenning is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Macau. He is the editor of Comparative Perspectives on the Philosophy of Nature and Contemporary Perspectives on Critical Theory and Systems Theory.