The Human and the Animal

doi:10.1017/9781009292863.026

Chapter 20 - The Human and the Animal

Toward Posthumanist Short Fiction

from Part IV - Theories

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2023

Michael Lundblad

Edited by

Michael J. Collins and

Gavin Jones

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Michael J. Collins: Affiliation:
King's College London
Gavin Jones: Affiliation:
Stanford University

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Summary

This chapter tracks the figure of the rat across American short fiction, focusing in particular on H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls” (1924), Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Mazes” (1975), and Karen Joy Fowler’s “Us” (2013). These stories illustrate powerful narrative effects that can be produced by constructing particular forms of animality, while also blurring, at times, the boundaries between what it means to be a human and what it means to be an animal. The chapter engages with the academic fields of human–animal studies, multispecies studies, and animality studies, exploring the short stories not only in relation to animal advocacy, but also problematic histories of animalizing certain human groups. Posthumanism cuts across these various fields, questioning constructions of the human as fundamentally different and superior to all other species on the planet. The chapter ultimately argues that some narrative techniques have more posthumanist potential than others.

Keywords

posthumanism human-animal studies animality studies multispecies studies species Lovecraft Le Guin Fowler

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to the American Short Story , pp. 313 - 326

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009292863.026 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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References

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