Research_

Animal stories

Exploring the impact of animal stories on human identities

Animals live fascinating lives. They do so, however, in their own particular ways. Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in animal stories of different kinds. Stories about real and imaginary animals abound in art, in children’s and adult literature, in form of television documentaries and across social media.

The arts, humanities, and social sciences have responded to this ubiquity of animal stories with a new interest in the challenges and possibilities of telling animal stories. Across this work is a central preoccupation with questions of meaning. In some cases, this takes the form of an exploration of how particular animals make sense of their worlds: how they understand and interact with changing environments.

In other contexts, the focus is on the diverse cultural and historical ways in which people attach meaning to animals and their lives - from the reading of auguries in animal movements or entrails to shifting ideas about animal rearing and welfare. These stories have made it clear that animal stories matter, and that we craft our own lives and our human identities out of them.

Contributors: Associate Professor Thom van Dooren, Professor Julia Kindt