ABSTRACT

Novel Creatures takes a close look at the expanding interest in animals in modern fiction and argues that the novels of this time reveal a dramatic shift in conceptions of "creatureliness." Scholars have turned to the term "creaturely" recently to describe shared aspects of human and animal experience, thus moving beyond work that primarily attends to distinctions between the human and the animal. Carrying forward this recent scholarship, Novel Creatures argues that creatureliness has been an intensely millennial preoccupation, but in two contrasting forms—one leading up to the turn of the century, the other after the tragic events of 9/11.

chapter |17 pages

Introduction

Shared Catastrophe and the Call of the Creaturely

chapter 1|33 pages

Trials by Water

Aquatic Landscapes, Questionable Sacrifices in Yann Martel and Linda Hogan

chapter 2|37 pages

Ringing in Animals and Eras

At the Circus with Sara Gruen and Angela Carter

chapter 3|32 pages

From Farm to Fable

Harvesting Humans in J. M. Coetzee, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Michel Faber

chapter 4|25 pages

Dwelling in the Future

Human-Animal Apocalypses in Indra Sinha and Barbara Gowdy

chapter |6 pages

Coda

Tania James’s Millennial Elephant