"But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others" - Representations of Animals in Literature - Einzelansicht

Please follow the "comment" link above for more information on comments, course readings, course requirements and grading.

"Online format: asynchronous with (voluntary) synchronous elements". Despite the fact that animals are a significant part of the Anglophone literary landscape, they are seldom the focus of our attention. In this course we want to read a wide ion of literary texts, mainly from the 20th century, that either prominently feature or deal with animals. Beyond popular children’s literature, animals are especially important as a trope in political narratives. Therefore, we will also read theory and non-fiction on the topic to explore human-animal relationships and to reconsider the role of animals in our cultural discourses. We will further address a great variety of issues where humans meet animals, such as zoos, meat production, animal testing, pets and others. Please be aware that this course covers issues such as the Holocaust, racism as well as colonial violence, and animal torture.

Our three key texts are:

Anna Sewell: Black Beauty

Art Spiegelman: Maus (we will focus on the second part And Here My Troubles Began)

J.M. Coetzee: The Lives of Animals

Black Beauty is in the public domain, so there will be an e-book you can download in the Moodle course. The Lives of Animals is available as both hardcopy and in e-book format in the Potsdam library. If it is possible please purchase Maus (either The Complete Maus or And Here My Troubles Began). Some excerpts from the text will be available as scans via Moodle.

Any additonal texts needed will be supplied via Moodle.

Potsdam Studierende: Je nach der jeweiligen StO und PULS Belegung.

Erasmus: nach Bedarf der Home University/ des Learning Agreements