ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that human’s project ableism onto non-human animals, viewing them through the lens of many of the same stereotypes forced upon disabled humans. It explores tension between the fields of animal studies and disability studies around membership in the moral community. The book analyzes the historical phenomenon of “mad cow disease,” or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, including the incineration of several million cattle in the UK, through a mad studies lens. It argues that Han Kang’s novel raises the question of whether it is familial, marital, and social oppression as well as psychiatrization itself that led to Yeong-hye’s demise, which is constructed as madness. Scholars working at the intersections of critical animal studies and critical disability studies have argued that the oppression of more-than-human animals and that of disabled humans are interconnected.
