Animal Theory: A Critical Introduction

168 Pages·2015·0.544 MB·English

by  Derek Ryan

Animal Theory

Animal Theory
A Critical Introduction
Derek Ryan
© Derek Ryan, 2015
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun – Holyrood Road
12(2f) Jackson’s Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in 11/13 Ehrhardt by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire,
and printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 8219 5 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 8221 8 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 0 7486 8220 1 (paperback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 8222 5 (epub)
The right of Derek Ryan to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003
(SI No. 2498).
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
Thinking Outside the Cage 1
A History of Anthropocentrism? Antiquity and Enlightenment 5
Animal Studies and Animal Theory 13
Chapter Overview 16
Key Texts and Further Reading 19
1 Animals as Humans 22
Psychoanalytic Animals 22
Anthropomorphism: Pitfalls and Potential 36
Writing ‘as if’ Anthropomorphism: ‘Lizzie’s Tiger’ 41
Key Texts and Further Reading 47
2 Animal Ontology 50
Humans as Animals 50
Becoming Animal 58
Posthuman Animals 68
Uncomfortable Analogies: The Lives of Animals 76
Key Texts and Further Reading 81
3 Animal Life 85
Everyday Animals 85
Phenomenological Worlds 99
Why Not an Olfactory Art? Timbuktu 110
Key Texts and Further Reading 116
vi animal theory
4 Animal Ethics 119
Animal Uses and Abuses 119
Beyond Animal Rights 129
Eating Animals 135
Meat Stories: Eating Animals 145
Key Texts and Further Reading 150
Index 154
Acknowledgements
First and foremost I would like to thank Jackie Jones at Edinburgh
University Press for initially suggesting the idea of a critical introduction
to animal theory. I am extremely grateful to her for placing confidence in me,
and for her encouragement as the project began to take shape. My thanks also
to Jackie’s colleagues at EUP and to my two anonymous reviewers.
This book has been enriched by conversations with a number of friends,
colleagues and animal studies scholars over the past few years. I am especially
thankful to Ariane Mildenberg, John Miller, Kaori Nagai, Jane Spencer,
Vicki Tromanhauser and Sarah Wood for generously giving time to read and
comment on chapters or sections of my typescript as it was nearing comple-
tion. For sharing insights, I would also like to thank Judith Allen, Claire
Davison, Jeanne Dubino, Jane Goldman, Matt Hayler, Donna Landry,
Michael Lawrence, Laci Mattison, Laura McMahon, Caroline Pollentier,
Maria Ridda, Kath Swarbrick, Lynn Turner and Ben Worthy. I am grateful
to the organisers and delegates of various energising and fascinating animal
studies conferences and events I have attended in recent years, in particular
‘Queer/Animal’ (King’s College London, 2012), ‘Cosmopolitan Animals’
(University of Kent, 2012) and ‘Reading Animals’ (University of Sheffield,
2014). And many thanks to those who attended the University of Kent’s
Student Forum on ‘Eating Animals’, as well as to the students who attended
my ‘Revolutionary Animals’ Summer School session at Kent’s Paris campus,
which partly inspired the opening to this book.
Finally, a very special thank you to my family for their continued love,
support and interest in my work.
Για την Στέλλα
Introduction
thinKinG oUtSiDe the CaGe
Nénette, Théodora, Tamü and Joey are Borneo orang-utans. They weigh
approximately 100 kg and measure 1.4 m in height. Their ‘home’ is the
rainforest. They are ‘people of the forest’.
Each year half a million visitors stand in front of a sign detailing four pri-
mates housed in the centre of Paris. A relatively small zoo, it nonetheless offers
the opportunity to see 1,800 animals of almost 200 species, from invertebrates
to amphibians, birds to reptiles, fish to mammals. For most people the zoo
presents an opportunity to encounter an array of exotic animals from around
the world that they would otherwise likely never see in the flesh. In contrast
to looking at animals on a television, on a computer screen, or in the pages of
a book, the only thing between the animal inside the enclosure and the human
standing outside is glass or bars and a sign that provides information about
length and weight, habitat and height: the blue poison dart frogs are 5 cm long
and their home is the tropical forests of northern Brazil; the Arabian camels
weigh 650 kg and their home is the desert in northern Africa and southeastern
Asia; the snow leopard weighs 55 kg and measures 1.30 m long and its home is
the mountain ranges of central and southern Asia; the axolotl, 30 cm and 110 g,
finds its home in Mexico’s Lake Xochimilco. Yet encounters between humans
and animals in zoos – regardless of the information provided and the closeness
in proximity – are often marked by a sense of distance and distraction. Inside
the enclosures the parrots perch too perfectly still; the foxes gather in the far
corner; the small tortoises scratch at the glass. Outside, we glance and point
and shuffle, moving promptly from one enclosure to the next. The orang-utans
turn their backs on us and we turn our backs on them.
Founded in 1793, the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes is the world’s oldest
civil zoo. In the midst of the French Revolution, opposition grew towards the