Chapter 14 - Animals and Climate Crisis in Irish Poetry

Summary

This chapter focuses on the literary tradition of shape-shifting human-animal figures in early Irish and modern literature. Inspired by ecofeminist and multispecies scholarship, Kathryn Kirkpatrick argues that “Palpably dynamic, relational, and even dialectical, the shape-shifter dramatically embodies ... a relational epistemology, the self-made and known in relation to others, including animal others.” Indeed, shape-shifting is “a powerful trope in an era when human beings, particularly those of the first world, must transform and adapt quickly to climate crisis.” The essay chastises the severe shortcomings of contemporary politics to address the mass extinction of species and contextualizes the historical literary tradition of shape-shifting from the vantage point of contemporary concerns.