Genre, tradition and renewal: Animal autobiography and poetics of the multicentric self
Abstract The development of animal autobiography as a genre has been constrained by the narrative possibility and epistemological impossibility of animals as autobiographers. In spite of its limitations, animal autobiography has still developed into different generic forms. Noting the generic tradit...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
2023-06-01
|
| Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01827-3 |
| _version_ | 1797801492733755392 |
|---|---|
| author | Chengcheng You |
| author_facet | Chengcheng You |
| author_sort | Chengcheng You |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The development of animal autobiography as a genre has been constrained by the narrative possibility and epistemological impossibility of animals as autobiographers. In spite of its limitations, animal autobiography has still developed into different generic forms. Noting the generic tradition and renewal as well as the ethical ramifications in animal autobiography, this study examines how animal selfhood is constructed to render varieties of autobiographical experiences. Drawn upon autofiction/autobiography studies and literary animal studies, this article probes into the art of self-invention in animal autobiography. A “self”-oriented analysis of Dorothy Kilner’s The Life and Perambulations of A Mouse (1784) and Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty (1877) reveals the genre’s common representational strategies, such as multi-scaled perceptions of an autofictional self, critical anthropomorphism and an ethics of witness. Based on these strategies, it further examines how Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan (2012) endorses a generic continuum and renewal. Following Jacques Derrida’s key concepts in his lecture “The Animal that Therefore I Am” in the discourse of human–animal relations, this study concludes with a proposed poetics of the multicentric self in animal autobiography, which maps out the interplay of the first-person persona’s authenticity, autofiction and literary authority, and serves the genre’s increasingly prominent anti-anthropocentric purposes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:51:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3ae3528486ab405480d8eae84a6fcc8b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2662-9992 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:51:18Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-3ae3528486ab405480d8eae84a6fcc8b2023-06-18T11:09:35ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922023-06-011011810.1057/s41599-023-01827-3Genre, tradition and renewal: Animal autobiography and poetics of the multicentric selfChengcheng You0University of MacauAbstract The development of animal autobiography as a genre has been constrained by the narrative possibility and epistemological impossibility of animals as autobiographers. In spite of its limitations, animal autobiography has still developed into different generic forms. Noting the generic tradition and renewal as well as the ethical ramifications in animal autobiography, this study examines how animal selfhood is constructed to render varieties of autobiographical experiences. Drawn upon autofiction/autobiography studies and literary animal studies, this article probes into the art of self-invention in animal autobiography. A “self”-oriented analysis of Dorothy Kilner’s The Life and Perambulations of A Mouse (1784) and Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty (1877) reveals the genre’s common representational strategies, such as multi-scaled perceptions of an autofictional self, critical anthropomorphism and an ethics of witness. Based on these strategies, it further examines how Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Ivan (2012) endorses a generic continuum and renewal. Following Jacques Derrida’s key concepts in his lecture “The Animal that Therefore I Am” in the discourse of human–animal relations, this study concludes with a proposed poetics of the multicentric self in animal autobiography, which maps out the interplay of the first-person persona’s authenticity, autofiction and literary authority, and serves the genre’s increasingly prominent anti-anthropocentric purposes.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01827-3 |
| spellingShingle | Chengcheng You Genre, tradition and renewal: Animal autobiography and poetics of the multicentric self Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| title | Genre, tradition and renewal: Animal autobiography and poetics of the multicentric self |
| title_full | Genre, tradition and renewal: Animal autobiography and poetics of the multicentric self |
| title_fullStr | Genre, tradition and renewal: Animal autobiography and poetics of the multicentric self |
| title_full_unstemmed | Genre, tradition and renewal: Animal autobiography and poetics of the multicentric self |
| title_short | Genre, tradition and renewal: Animal autobiography and poetics of the multicentric self |
| title_sort | genre tradition and renewal animal autobiography and poetics of the multicentric self |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01827-3 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT chengchengyou genretraditionandrenewalanimalautobiographyandpoeticsofthemulticentricself |