Advanced Mammals

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Date: 2020-01-01

Creator: Emma Bezilla

Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community

New Creatures in Old Gazes: Investigating Shifts Away from Anthropocentrism in Contemporary Animal Fiction

Date: 2025-01-01

Creator: Catherine Mose

Access: Open access

This paper examines three works of animal-based fiction published within the last decade that all center on hypothetical forms of animals with a focus on decentering anthropocentric narratives of how much agency an animal is allowed to have in a human-centric narrative without engaging in anthropmorphism. By comparing the books with theory from the academic field of animal studies, older works of animal-based fiction, and historical debates surrounding the depiction of real-world animals in writing, I aim to interrogate the methods these authors use to decouple their animals' agency from anthropomorphism, and the ways in which this shift allows anthropocentrism to take new forms rather than be eradicated.