Animals are essential to literature, history, and culture. From the time of the paleolithic caveman etching images on stone walls, animals have been popular artistic subjects. Undeniably, today’s literary landscape would look vastly different without animals. For instance, the behemoth Moby Dick, the sleek Black Beauty, and the wise Aslan are fundamental parts of their literary wholes. Furthermore, animals are integral to forms of literature outside the novel, such as fairy tales and folktales. What would Cinderella do without her helpful mice? Who would devour Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother?
While animals abound in literary works, the way they are depicted varies drastically. Often, animals are anthropomorphised. Anthropomorphism is the projection of human qualities onto animals, a common literary interpretation. The benefit of anthropomorphism is that it transforms animals into relatable, sympathetic, and easily understood figures. If the Cheshire Cat can talk in English, the issue of the language barrier is mended. If Puss in Boots is dressed in clothes, he appears civilised and part of our familiar society. However, there are drawbacks to anthropomorphism. By endowing animals with human qualities, animals lose their animality, their beastliness, their natural essence. Often, texts that anthropomorphize animals say more about human society than animals themselves.
Companion species, a term coined by Donna Haraway to describe species such as dogs and cats, are common in literature. It is no wonder that companion animals are popular subjects, considering their close proximity to our everyday life. Two excellent novels that examine companion species are Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward and Flush by Virginia Woolf. I read these texts for the ‘Beastly Writing’ course here at the University of Edinburgh, and I heartily recommend both. Another one of my personal favourites is the children’s novel Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. These novels examine the meaningful, complicated, and rewarding relationships between the animal and the human.
Importantly, humans are also a companion species. We are part of the co-constitutive reciprocal relationship between the human and the animal. In fact, through reading about animals, readers surely must start questioning the myth of the ‘human.’ Humans are one species out of millions in existence; we are part of a wider circle of life than just industrialised human society. We are all beings in this world — living, surviving, building relationships.
So, what is the role of animals in literature? Animals ground the reader in a richly diverse, multi-species world. Animals remind us that there is so much life other than human life; we are but a tiny drop in a vast ocean. Animals, whether they are anthropomorphised or depicted as their authentic animal selves, act as literary characters that emerge as valuable additions to the literary canon. The best literature about animals portrays them as active, compelling, pervasive creatures that have cemented their place in our ‘human’ histories. Now, go cuddle your companion animal, watch a National Geographic documentary, and immerse yourself in literature centred around wonderful and diverse creatures.
“Elephants after sunset, Amboseli National Park, Kenya, East Africa” by diana_robinson is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0