Unlocking the Voices of the Nonhuman: A Hermeneutic Analysis of Eighteenth-Century Animalographies
Unlocking the Voices of the Nonhuman: A Hermeneutic Analysis of Eighteenth-Century Animalographies

Summary/Abstract: Voicing the literary animal is a task of immense responsibility. Exploring two eighteenth-century novels, namely The Life and Perambulations of a Mouse (1784) and Biography of a Spaniel (1797), this essay aims to analyze the use of nonhuman narrators and their surfacing insights into humananimal relationality. By employing Hanna Meretoja’s concept of “narrative hermeneutics” and Anat Pick’s “creaturely poetics,” the analysis questions the ways in which animalographies empower the voices and agency of nonhuman entities in literature and shift the narrative away from a human-centric one to a more inclusive, multispecies one. To this end, the literary animal’s employment and portrayal delimitates ethical spheres of interaction within the narrative, reassessing the hierarchical model constructed by anthropocentrism and challenging the traditional, dominant narrative that prioritizes human experience and perception.

• Details
• Contents