Animal Theories/Human Fictions
Fall 2014
Professor Kari Weil kweil@wesleyan.edu
41 Wyllis Ave, Rm 325Office hours: Mon4-5, Tues 2-4 (and by appt.)
The idea of human exceptionalism--our absolute difference from other animals and
the humanism that undergirds it-- has come under attack from the perspectives of
science and from the humanities. What had previously been thought to distinguish
humans from non-human animals (language, consciousness, thought, etc.) exists in
at least some species of non-humans, and we humans must increasingly see
ourselves as one among many endangered species, threatened by the very
environmental changes that our “culture” has helped to produce.
In this course we will move historically through the texts and contexts of
Enlightenment Humanism, Darwinian Evolution, Modernist and existential antihumanism and contemporary Posthumanism in order to trace changing
conceptions of what makes humans different from other animals and how that
perceived difference has affected our real relations with them. We will also consider
the ways that the representation of "the animal" intersects with theories of gender
and race as it also contests the grounds of representation itself.
Texts to purchase (in order of use); (All other readings will be available on Moodle) :
Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Eugène Sue, Godolphin Arabian.
Jacob von Uexküll, A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans
Georgio Agamben, The Open
J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
Class Requirements
Computers should only be open to class readings, otherwise please close them.
Attendance: Mandatory, as this is a seminar and we all intend to learn from each
other. You have two free absences after the end of drop/add: after that, your grade
will be adjusted to reflect any unexcused absence. Please let me know as soon as
you are aware you will need to be absent.
Papers:
There will be three short papers (3 pages) and one longer paper/project.(8-10
pages). Papers should be turned in on time (see syllabus). One late paper is allowed
but will not be accepted if more than one week late. The final paper/project will be
on a topic of your choice and should include your own independent research. These
may also be collaborative. Students should come to discuss this final project with
me. All papers should follow either the MLA or Chicago Manuel of Style.
Presentations:
With one or two partners, students will t give a 5-10 minute presentation on or
around an assigned text. You may discuss one or more passages or ideas of the text;
or you may want to investigate the cultural/historical contexts that inform the
text(s) assigned for that day. Feel free to come and discuss your ideas/questions
with me beforehand.
Discussion board. Every other week students will be asked to select one or two
quotations or passages from the reading for discussion. Students should post the
quotation on the discussion board, giving the page number and context for the
quotation. You may select quotations from two different texts that, in your mind,
are interesting to consider together or select a single quotation that you want to
think about further. If the quotation is from a literary text, you should describe at
what point it appears in the plot, who is speaking, to whom, or what is being
described. For other texts, you should indicate where in the argument the quote
appears and how it serves (or perhaps contradicts) the overall argument of the text.
You should try to paraphrase the quote in your own words and then raise questions
about its importance or its power, paying particular attention to its meaning, its
word choice, its originality or its relation to the ideas raised in other texts.
Grading:
Papers 1-3: 30%; Final Paper 30% Discussion Board: 25% Presentation 15%
Students with Disabilities:
It is the policy of Wesleyan University to provide reasonable accommodations to students
with documented disabilities. Students, however, are responsible for registering with
Disabilities Services, in addition to making requests known to me in a timely manner. If you
require accommodations in this class, please make an appointment with me as soon as
possible [during the 3rd week of the semester], so that appropriate arrangements can be
made. The procedures for registering with Disabilities Services can be found at:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/studentaffairs/disabilities
Syllabus
Why Animal Studies?
9/1Introduction: Animals in Western Thought
9/3 11Rousseau, “On the Origins of Inequality” Part I (1754)
Enlightenment Humanism and its Discontents
9/8Rousseau, Part II and notes
9/10 Account of a Savage Girl
Julia Douthwaite, The Wild Girl, Natural Man, and the Monster (chap 1)
9/15 Diderot, “D’Alembert’s Dream” (1769) Part I-II (Conversation and Dream)
Timothy Morton, “Queer Ecology”
9/17 Diderot, “Dream” Part III;
Suggested Reading: Robert Young, “Hybridity and Fertility” from Colonial
Desire.: Hybridity in Theory, Culture, Race: pp. 6-18.
Guest visit: Dean Andrew Curran
1st Paper due, Friday, 9/21
Animal Orientalism : Gender/Race/Species
9/22 from Black Venus, “Writing Sex, Writing Difference,”; “Invention of the
Savage;”
9/24 Balzac, “A Passion in the Desert”
9/30 Eugène Sue, Godolphin Arabian.
Breeding Bodies or Morals?: Evolution,Degeneration and Progress
10/1 Jeremy Bentham, “A Utilitarian View” (1789 (excerpt), Victor Hugo,
“Melancholia,” Kete, “Animal Protection in the 19th Century”
10/6Darwin— Darwin, Origin of Species (1859):, chap. 3, “Struggle for Existence”
Descent of Man,(1871), Conclusions; Expression of Emotions in Man and
Animals (1872), Chapters 13-14:
10/8 E.O. Wilson, http: “Evolution-and-our-inner-conflict”
Maupassant, “Coco”
Ritvo, The Animal Estate Chapter 3, “A Measure of Compassion
10/13 Nietzsche, Use and Abuse of History, (1873) Geneology of Morals (1887)
(excerpts)“Oh my Animals,” (excerpts 1881-1887); Ritvo, “Prize Pets.
Desiring Subjects and Abject Objects of Modernism
10/15 Thomas Mann, “Tobias Mindernickel,” (1898); Mary Douglas, “External
Boundaries,” Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror, 1-19, Elizabeth Bishop, “Pink Dog,”
2nd Paper due, Friday, 10/17
FALL BREAK
10/22 Alice Kuzniar, “On Shame” Melancholia’s Dog
Kafka, “Investigations of a Dog” (1922), “ Report to an Academy”
10/27 Ackerley, My Dog Tulip
Animal Phenomenology
10/29 Uexküll, “A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans” (1934), and
Introduction by Dorion Sagan. 1-92.
11/3 Uexkülll, cont. , 92-135. Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Eighth Elegy,”(1922),
11/5 Martin Heidegger, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, (1938) Sections:
42, 46-48, 59(b)
11/10 Georgio Agamben, The Open, (2004), 1-47.
11/12 Agamben, cont. , 49-end.
3rd Paper due, Friday 11/16
Posthumanist animals
11/17 Emmanuel Levinas, “The Name of a Dog” (1990); Vicki Hearne, “Job’s
Animals” (1994) Hélène Cixous, “Stigmata, Or Job the Dog”(1998)
11/19 Derrida, “The Animal that Therefore I am”
11/24 Deleuze and Guattari, “Becoming Animal” (1980), Donna Haraway, When
Species Meet (2008) selections
Thanksgiving
12/1 J.M. Coetzee Disgrace
12/3 Wolfe, “Introduction,” What is Post-humanism?;”
Vincianne Despret,, “The Body we Care For,”
Final Paper Due Thursday, December 10